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A HISTORY OF PISA 



CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 

C. F. CLAY, Manager 

LONDON : FETTER LANE, E.C. 4 




NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO. 

BOMBAY ) 

CALCUTTA^ MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. 

MADRAS j 

TORONTO : THE MACMILLAN CO. OF 

CANADA, Ltd. 
TOKYO : MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



A HISTORY OF PISA 

ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH CENTURIES 



BY 



WILLIAM HEYWOOD 

AUTHOR OF A PICTORIAL CHRONICLE OF SIENA, 

PALIO AND PONTE, A HISTORY OF PERUGIA 

AND OTHER WORKS 



WITH A MAP AND SIXTEEN PICTURES 



CAMBRIDGE 

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
I 9 2 I 



-JI&11 



,w 



l4* 



1A 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

William Heywood, who lived so long in Siena and Perugia 
and whose books on medieval Italy are well known to all students 
and lovers of that time, died on June 26th, 19 19, at the age of 62. 
The son of the Rev. Nathaniel Heywood, Rector of St Michael's, 
Bristol, he was born at Much Wenlock (Salop), where his father 
was then curate, on March 19th, 1857, and was educated at 
Clifton College, which he entered in 1869, and at Corpus Christi 
College, Cambridge (1875-1878). He read for the law, and for 
about three years was articled to a solicitor in Newcastle-on- 
Tyne. After his marriage in 1879 ne threw up the law, however, 
for" the wild and woolly West," and went to America, when about 
twenty-five, as a cowpuncher. He owned a ranch in Buffalo, 
Wyoming, subsequently editing a Wyoming newspaper, threw 
this up for the law, was called to the American Bar, and at length 
became a Justice of the Peace. He returned to Europe in 1894 
on account of his wife's health, and went to live in Siena, where 
he made a host of friends, English and Italian. Indeed it would 
be true to say that no one ever met him without being fascinated 
by his joyous and robust nature, his absolute sincerity, simplicity 
of character and good. faith, his humorous outlook and enormous 
good nature and generosity. In many ways he may be said never 
to have grown up ; he was an English Public Schoolboy to the 
day of his death. The richness of his nature, his gift for life, the 
overwhelming fullness of his temperament that would express 
itself in every sort of laughter and practical joking, his essential 
masculinity, too, together with his height and bigness generally, 
made up a figure that can never be forgotten and that was 
essentially English. 

About 1904 Mr Heywood left Siena, where the greater number 
of his books were written — Our Lady of August and the Polio of 
Siena (1899), The Ensamples of Fra Filippo (1901), A Pictorial 
Chronicle of Siena (1902), The Historical Guide to Siena (1903), 
Palio and Ponte (1904). He went to Perugia in order to write 



vi BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

what proved to be his magnum opus, the History of Perugia (1910). 
The enormous care he expended upon everything he wrote, the 
absolute neatness and perfection even of his manuscript, the 
careful rewriting, sometimes four or five times, of every page, 
have given to all his works the priceless value of accuracy in fact, 
a virtue upon which he set the very greatest store. Whatever 
value his work may come to have in the future, it will certainly 
never be set aside on the score of inaccuracy. Profound student 
of medieval Italy though he was, his most passionate enthusiasm 
and love were given to Italy of to-day. It is true that he wor- 
shipped Siena and loathed Florence like a Sienese of the time 
of Montaperto, but he gave his whole heart to the new nation; 
and his whole attitude, so much in accord as it was with that of 
the young Italy of to-day, might be summed up in the famous 
last sentence of his History of Perugia : "Hygiene is greater than 
art, and facilities for locomotion and transit are more important 
to a modern city than the preservation of all the ancient palaces 
that were ever built. For myself, I am content to know that 
Italia cammina." To those who knew and loved him, Italy will 
seem to have lost a part of her delight now that he has gone. 
Requiescat in pace. 

The book here given to the public was his last work. It was 
completed some time before his death, but the war prevented its 
publication during his lifetime. It was his last wish that it should 
be published after his death and it is appropriate that the Press 
of his old University, to which his library was presented, should 
have undertaken it. 

E. H. 

June 1921. 



PREFACE 

This book, which occupied my leisure hours from 1910 to 
1917, was written in a Devonshire village under the difficulties 
which naturally confront one who lives far from great libraries. 
It had been my intention to return to Italy and to finish it in 
Pisa. The war prevented that. I am conscious of many de- 
ficiencies; but I think it better to commit my volume to the 
press rather than to await opportunities which, at my age, are 
unlikely to recur. For copies of numerous passages from docu- 
ments and chronicles and for the verification of many references 
I am indebted to the unfailing kindness of my friends Mr 
Edmund G. Gardner, Mr Robert W. Carden, Mr Edward 
Hutton and, above all, Mr A. G. Ferrers Howell who has 
taken an interest in the work ever since its inception and has 
rendered me invaluable assistance in ways too various to par- 
ticularise. The two modern writers to whom I owe most are 
Professor G. Volpe and Professor Camillo Manfroni. How 
greatly I have profited by their learning may be gauged by the 
frequency with which I have cited their works in my footnotes. 
The map which accompanies the book was prepared for me by 
Mr Donald E. Woollen. 

WILLIAM HEYWOOD 



CORRIGENDA 

p. 14. I. 16, for Murangone read Marangone. 
p. 206, 1. 13, for Logoduro read Logudoro. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAP. PAGE 

I. A FLOATING REPUBLIC i 

II. THE EXPULSION OF MOGAHID FROM SARDINIA 15 

III. THE EXPEDITIONS AGAINST PALERMO AND 

MEHDIA 26 

IV. THE FIRST CRUSADE 45 

V. THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION .... 58 

VI. WAR WITH GENOA 71 

VII. THE WAR WITH THE NORMANS ... 82 

VIII. INTO THE VORTEX 89 

IX. PISAN COLONIES 107 

X. FREDERICK BARBAROSSA .117 

XI. EXPULSION OF THE GENOESE FROM CONSTAN- 
TINOPLE 134 

XII. BARISONE OF ARBOREA 143 

XIII. RAINALD OF COLOGNE 158 

XIV. GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA . . .170 
XV. CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE 195 

XVI. THE COMMUNES DEPRIVED OF THEIR CONTADI 207 

XVII. PISA AND THE EMPEROR HENRY VI . . . 216 

XVIII. "THE GREAT REFUSAL" 228 

XIX. PISA UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CON- 
SULS 235 

XX. CONSORTERIE GENTILIZIE 252 

XXI. FROM CONSULS TO POTESTA . . . .262 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX ..... 270 

INDEX 277 



PLATE 

II. 
III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 
VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 



XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 



LIST OF PLATES 

TO FACE PAGE 

PANORAMA OF PISA 2 

THE RIVER ARNO „ 3 

THE RIVER ARNO ,,28 

INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL 29 

CHURCH OF S. PIERINO ,,58 

PORTA PRINCIPALS DEL DUOMO 59 
(Giovanni da Bologna) 

PALAZZO GAMBACORTI „ 100 

PALAZZO DELL' OROLOGIO IN PIAZZA DI 

CAVALIERI „ 101 

CHURCH OF S. NICCOLA „ 144 

PULPIT OF NICCOLd PISANO . 145 

PORTA A DESTRA DELLA FACCIATA. CATTE- 

DRALE (Giovanni da Bologna) . . . „ 168 

BAS-RELIEF. S. MARTIN DIVIDING HIS 
CLOAK WITH A BEGGAR. CHURCH OF 

S. MARTIN ,,169 

IL TRIONFO DELLA MORTE. CAMPO SANTO „ 204 
(Andrea Orcagna) 

THE CAMPANILE ,,205 

PIAZZA DEL DUOMO ,,244 

FAQADE OF THE CHURCH OF S. MICHELE . „ 245 



MAP OF PISA AND TUSCANY 



between 276 & 277 



Plates I, IV, V, VI, VII, IX, XI, XII, XIV, and XVI are from photographs 
by Alinari ; plates VIII, X, XIII, XV from photographs by Brogi ; plates II 
and III from photographs (of engravings) by H. Burton. 



CHAPTER THE FIRST 

A FLOATING REPUBLIC 

Trom the dim days before the Trojan War, when Pelops, 
coming from Pisa in Elis, founded the Italian Pisae on the 
marshy headland between the Arnus and the Ausar, the city's 
destiny was sealed beyond recall. Of the sea was she born, 
from the sea she drew her life-blood, and when the sea was 
lost to her she perished from inanition. This is the keynote of 
her history so long as she has a history at all that is worth re- 
cording; and he who would understand her weakness and her 
strength, her splendour and her ruin, must never altogether get 
the sound of the sea out of his ears nor the smell of the sea out 
of his nostrils. 

Originally, no doubt, Pisa stood quite close to the shore; 
but, owing to the alluvial deposits of her two rivers, the land 
gradually gained upon the sea, until, in Strabo's time, the city 
was already two and a half miles from the coast. In the tenth 
century it was four, and to-day it is six miles inland 1 . Yet the 
ever-widening strip of plain between Pisa and the sea did 
nothing to affect her status as a maritime city, since the Arno 
long continued to be navigable for all except the very largest 
vessels. Thus, in 525, we find Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, order- 
ing the removal of certain sepes which the fisher-folk had set in 
fluminibus navigeris diversis territoriis meantibus, and among 
them in the Arnus, to the end that the free passage of ships 
{navium cursus) might not be impeded 2 . Nearly six centuries 
later, the great fleet which sailed to the conquest of the Balearic 
Isles was built in the dockyards of Pisa, and, even in the 13th 

1 Dennis, The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria ("Everyman's Library" 
edition), vol. II, p. 79, n. 1. 

2 Cassiodorus, Var. v. Ep. 17 and 20, in M. G. H. xn. See also Repetti, 
Diz. geografico fisico storico della Toscana, iv, 307, and Manfroni, Storia della 
Marina Italiana dalle Invasioni barbariche al trattato di Ninfeo (Livorno, 
1899), p. 10. 



2 A FLOATING REPUBLIC [ch. 

century, long after the new Porto Pisano had been constructed 1 , 
we have satisfactory evidence that the Pisans still caulked and 
repaired their ships "ab ecclesia sancti Viti versus degatiam 
tantum ex utraque parte Ami 2 ." 

In Roman times, there had been a regular harbour on the 
sea-coast (portus etruscus, portus pisanus, portus Pisarum), one of 
the most frequented in the Tyrrhenian Sea, a starting place for 
expeditions to Marseilles, Sardinia or Spain 3 ; but after the fall 
of the Empire it was abandoned and gradually silted up, until 
to-day its very site is doubtful 4 . That it was still of considerable 
importance in the fourth century of our era is proved by the 
fact that, in 398, the Imperial fleet, under the command of 
Mascezel, assembled there before sailing for North Africa 
against the rebel Gildo 5 . Eighteen years later, Rutilius wrote 
his celebrated description of the harbour, with its fringe of sea- 
weed and the great Villa Triturrita jutting into it 6 . Thence he 

1 On the authority of P. Vigo, Storia del p or to pisano (Roma, 1898), p. 7, 
Professor C. Calisse gives 1163 as the date of the first work done on the new 
porto pisano. Compare, however, Arch. Stor. It. T. VI. P. 11. pp. 18, 28 and 
32, and Repetti, Diz. cited, article "Porto pisino." 

2 Bonaini, Statuti inediti della Cittd di Pisa (Firenze, 1854-1857), vol. 1, 
p. 306. 

3 F. C. Hodgson, The Early History of Venice (London, 1901), p. 235. 

* Some have identified it with Leghorn. Others place it at the mouth of 
the Arno. See Dennis, ubi cit., p. 77, and authorities there cited. 

5 Claudianus, De bello Gildomco, in M. G. H. (Auct. Antiq.), vol. x, p. 71, 
w. 479 et seq. : 

Ut fluctus tetigere maris, tunc acrior arsit 
Impetus ; arripiunt naves, ipsique rudentes 
Expediunt, et vela legunt et cornua summis 
Adsociant malis ; quatitur Tyrrhena tumultu 
Ora, nee Alpheae capiunt navalia Pisae : 
Sic Agamemnoniam vindex cum Graecia classem 
Solveret, innumeris fervebat vocibus Aulis. 
Non illos strepitus impendentisque procellae 
Signa, nee adventus dubii deterruit Austri. 
' Solvite iam, socii,' clamant, ' aut rumpite funem. 
Per vada Gildonem quamvis adversa petamus.' 

6 Rutilius Claudius Namatianus, De Reditu suo. Edited by C. H. Keene 
(London, Bell and Sons, 1907), Lib. 1, w. 527-540: 

Inde Triturritam petimus : sic villa vocatur, 

Quae latere expulsis insula paene fretis. 
Namque manu iunctis procedit in aequora saxis, 

Quique domum posuit, condidit ante solum. 



PLATE I 




PLATE II 




i] A FLOATING REPUBLIC 3 

made his way to Pisa, situated, as in the days of Pelops, between 
the Arnus and the Ausar 1 ; and his visit affords us a last glimpse 
of the Roman colony before the dark night of Barbarian inva- 
sion settles down like a pall, hiding it from our eyes for more 
than six generations. 

Subject to the Ostrogoths, Pisa gave herself voluntarily to 
Narses 2 , and then, in the seventh century, fronts the Middle 
Ages, still a maritime city and practically self-governing 3 . 
Probably, indeed, all those fears which, previous to 603, 
Gregory the Great had manifested for the safety of the islands 
of the Tyrrhenian Sea, were inspired by the activities of the 
Pisans; and, in that year at any rate, we find them preparing a 
naval expedition in flat defiance of papal entreaties : " Ad Pisanos 
autem hominem nostrum dudum, qualem debuimus et quo 
modo debuimus, transmissimus, sed obtinere nil potuit. Unde 
et dromones eorum iam parati ad egrediendum nuntiati sunt 4 ." 
That this expedition was directed against the Greeks is scarcely 
doubtful, but whether the Pisans who took part in it were mere 
pirates or tacitly leagued with the Longobards we do not know 5 . 
In either case those dromones parati ad egrediendum suffice to 

Contiguum stupui portum, quern fama frequentat 

Pisarum emporio divitiisque maris. 
Mira loci facies. Pelago pulsantur aperto 

Inque omnes ventos litora nuda patent : 
Non ullus tegitur per brachia tuta recessus, 

Aeolias possit qui prohibere minas : 
Sed procera suo praetexitur alga profundo, 

Molliter ofTensae non nocitura rati ; 
Et tamen insanas cedendo interligat undas, 

Nee sinit ex alto grande volumen agi. 

1 Ibid. w. 565-570: 

Alpheae veterem contemplor originis urbem, 
Quam cingunt geminis Arnus et Ausar aquis ; 

Conum pyramidis coeuntia fiumina ducunt: 
Intratur modico frons patefacta solo : 

Sed proprium retinet communi in gurgite nomen, 
Et pontum solus scilicet Arnus adit. 

2 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad ann. 553. 

3 Repetti, Dizionario cited, iv, 308: "...sul principio del secolo vii le 
citta di Pisa e di Sovana in Maremma governavansi quasi a repubblica." 

4 Epistolae ex Registro Domni Gregorii in M. G. H. {Epistolarum vol. 11), 
xiii, 36. Smeragdo Patricio et Exarco. 

6 See Hegel, Storia della Costituzione dei Municipi Italiani (Milano, 
Guigoni, 1861), pp. 247-248; Volpe, Pisa e i Longobardi in Studi Storici 



4 A FLOATING REPUBLIC [ch. 

prove that they were still a race of seamen ; and the absence of 
all records probably conceals a long series of maritime enter- 
prises, some of them possibly of considerable importance. May 
we not presume that there were Pisans among the dromonari of 
Theodoric 1 and in the aKarot, of Totila 2 ? 

When and how the Longobards entered Pisa is a question 
which remains extremely doubtful. Apparently, however, the 
process was a gradual one, continuing through all the first half 
of the seventh century; while a further period seems to have 
elapsed before they established a regular government there. 
For more than two centuries we have no notice of public 
officials residing in Pisa 3 . The probability is that the Longo- 
bards occupied the city little by little without any violent con- 
quest, joining in the maritime enterprises of the Latin popu- 
lation, half mercantile, half piratical. Yet, if their invasion was 
peaceable, it was none the less thorough, and ere long the 
Germanic element seems to have become the predominant one 4 . 
The assertion made by so many writers that the Longobards 
hated the sea is a generalization from insufficient data; and, 
although the annexation of Sardinia by Liutprand is nothing 
better than a myth 5 , they probably conquered Corsica and cer- 
tainly maintained constant relations with it 6 . That these rela- 
tions were not entered into from Genoa is obvious. Under the 
Romans, Genoa had been an important seaport since the 
Second Punic war, and up to the time of Rotharis it was free ; 
after Rotharis it was scarcely more than an unwalled village 
with a scanty population of fisher-folk 7 . Pisa was the only ' 
Longobard port in the Tyrrhenian Sea. 

(Pisa),x, 370 et seq.; Manfroni, op. cit. p. 23 ; Besta, La Sardegna Medioevale 
(Palermo, A. Reber, 1908-9), 1, 25; Villari, Le invasioni barbariche in Italia 
(Milano, Hoepli, 1901), p. 296. 

1 Cassiodorus, Variarum II, 31 ; IV, 15, in M. G. H. XII. 

2 Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 15-16, citing Procopius, De bello Gotkico. 

3 Volpe, Pisa e i Longobardi, ubi cit. pp. 374-375, 387. 4 Ibid. p. 384. 
5 Besta, La Sardegna Medioevale, op. at. 1, 31-33. 

c See the very interesting details given by Volpe, ubi cit. p. 383. 

7 Lumbroso, Sulla Storia dei Genovesi avanti il MC. (Torino, 1872), p. 32 ; 
R. W. Carden, The City of Genoa (London, Methuen, 1908), p. 2. The date 
a.d. 670, given by the latter writer, is obviously a misprint. In 670, Rotharis 
had been dead for nearly twenty years. 



i] A FLOATING REPUBLIC 5 

Afterwards, in the early years of the Frankish domination, 
we find the Pisans joining in the great struggle which Charle- 
magne and his immediate successors carried on against the 
Saracens; we possess some slight evidence that, about the year 
808, an imperial fleet, manned in part by Pisans and Genoese, 
inflicted a defeat upon a Greco- Venetian fleet near Comacchio 1 , 
while, if we may credit the chroniclers, the parva classis which, 
in 828, raided the coast of Africa between Utica and Carthage, 
under the command of Bonifazio, Count of Lucca and Prefect 
of Corsica, was almost wholly manned by Pisan mariners 2 . The 
statement that there were Pisan galleys at the battle of Ostia, in 
849, is, no doubt, romance and not history 3 ; but the two thou- 
sand Tuscans who fortified the walls of Salerno, in 871, were 
almost certainly Pisans, since, as Sismondi justly remarks, Pisa 
was the only Tuscan city whose inhabitants had, as yet, devoted 
themselves to commerce or possessed ships 4 . 

In 906 the Saracens, already masters of Sicily and of a great 
part of Southern Italy 5 , captured Frassineto, which seems to 
have been situated on the long peninsula that shuts in the bay 

1 Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 37-38. Compare Hodgson, op. cit. p. 71 et seq. 
All the details of this war are highly conjectural. 

2 Roncioni, Delle istorie pisane, in " Arch. Stor. It." T. vi. P. 1. p. 41 et seq. ; 
Amari, Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia (Firenze, Le Monnier, 1854), vol. 1, 
pp. 276-278 ; Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 42-43 ; ~Muratori,Annali d' Italia, ad annum. 

8 Tronci, Annali Pisani, rifusi arricchiti di moltifatti e seguitati fino all' anno 
1839 (Pisa, 1868), 1, 140. 

* Anonymi Salernitani Paralipomena, apud Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. 
T. 11. P. 11. col. 256: "Aliam [turrimj namque Salernitani construxerunt, 
quae dicitur Mediana et secus illam turrim aditum civitatis fecerunt et ferris 
et ferris (sic) illam munierunt. Illam vero quae est ab ortu solis Tuscianenses 
operarunt, etenim illi illo in tempore fere duo millia fuerunt." Compare 
Sismon ii, Storia delle Rep. Ital. dei Secoli di Mezzo (Milano, Pagnoni), vol. 1, 
cap. v, p. 120 n. 

5 In this connection a few dates may prove useful. The conquest of Sicily 
began in 827. Palermo was taken in 831, Messina in 843 and Castrogiovanni 
in 859. Meanwhile, the Venetians were defeated off Taranto, Ancona was 
burnt and the Adriatic swept by Mussulman fleets. Another company took 
Bari and carried their ravages into Apulia. In 846, they menaced the very 
gates of Rome and burned a suburb. Retiring towards Fondi, they laid 
waste the country and besieged Gaeta, driving back, in headlong rout, even 
to Montecassino, the army which the Emperor had sent against them. For 
a time, after 866, Lewis II checked their advance; but his death, in 875, put 
an end to any organized resistance, and, in 878, Syracuse, the last Greek 
city of Sicily was taken by the infidels. 



6 A FLOATING REPUBLIC [ch. 

of Villafranca to the east of Nice 1 . There they maintained 
themselves for over thirty years, pushing their plundering ex- 
peditions into Burgundy and Piedmont and ravaging all the 
neighbouring coasts 2 . The terror-stricken Ligurians fled inland, 
carrying with them the relics of their saints and the ashes of 
their fathers — an emigration one of the results of which may 
be found in the jurisdiction which the pievi of the mountain 
districts then acquired over the maritime parishes, and, I be- 
lieve, still continue to exercise 3 . From the Magra to the coasts 
of Provence the Riviera lay desolate, and, in 935, Genoa itself 
was sacked with horrible slaughter. Only the women and chil- 
dren were spared to become the slaves of the victors, who 
carried them away to Africa "together with the spoil of all the 
churches and houses of Genoa 4 ." Eventually, the incursions 
of the Saracens probably proved beneficial to Genoa, since the 
lesser towns of the two Riviere, unable to provide for their own 
defence, put themselves under her protection, and, in process 
of time, from the head of a confederation she became a sove- 
reign 5 . For the moment, however, she was hopelessly crippled, 
and her weakness turned to the advantage of Pisa, which from 
thenceforward, so far at least as any Italian rivals were con- 
cerned, dominated the Ligurian Sea for over a century 6 . So 

1 Hodgson, op. at. p. 162. 

2 They were finally dislodged by Hugh of Provence, in 942. Muratori, 
Annali d' Italia, ad annum. 

3 Cantu, Storia degli Jtaliani (Torino, 1854), torn, ill, cap. 71. In this 
connection it may be observed that a Pieve was a church in which there was 
a baptismal font — a Baptistery. Dependent on it were other parochial 
churches where the sacrament of baptism was not administered. The custom 
of baptising in pievi only, instead of in all parish churches, still exists in 
many Italian dioceses. (See Lusini, I conjini storici del vescovado di Siena, in 
Bullettino Senese di Storia Patria, vol. v (1898), p. 345 n.) 

4 The best account of the sack of Genoa is to be found in Amari, Storia 
dei Musidmani, op. cit. 11, 179-181. Cf. Manfroni, op. tit. p. 61. The narra- 
tives of the elder Genoese historians, up to Serra and Canale, may, of course, 
be dismissed as fabulous. 

6 Lanzani, Storia dei Comuni Italiani dalle Grigini al 1313 (Milano, 
Villardi, 1882), p. 120. 

6 Machiavelli, Istorie Fiorentine, lib. 1: "La citta di Genova e tutte le sue 
riviere furono in questi tempi dai Saracini disfatte, donde ne nacque la 
grandezza della citta di Pisa, nella quale assai popoli cacciati dalla patria sua 
ricorsero...." 



i] A FLOATING REPUBLIC 7 

greatly did she increase in power and importance that Luit- 
prand, Bishop of Cremona, does not hesitate to speak of her as 
the Capital of Tuscany — Tusciae Provinciae caput 1 — a title, be 
it observed, which, rightly considered, is a direct testimony to 
her maritime ascendancy. On land, as we shall see more fully 
hereafter, she was still crowded almost out of existence by the 
overgrown territory and diocese of Lucca. In the tenth century, 
her only claim to be called the capital of Tuscany lay in her 
naval and commercial supremacy; and that supremacy, so far 
from giving umbrage to the German Emperors and to the 
Marquises of Tuscany, seems to have met with their unqualified 
approval. Possessing no naval forces of their own, they were 
glad to profit by the initiative and enterprise of their seafaring 
subjects. On the sea Pisa was already practically free, and her 
fleets may be said to have formed a floating republic 2 . There- 
after, the Commune was established on a solid legal basis by 
two, or perhaps three, Imperial diplomas, but the earliest of 
these was not granted until the second quarter of the 12th 
century, when the Pisans had already been ruled by their own 
Consuls for more than forty years. We may, therefore, regard 
them rather as recognitions of accomplished facts than as con- 
cessions of new political rights 3 . 

1 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad arm. 926. 

2 Amari, Prime imprese degli Italiani nel Mediterraneo, in the Nuova 
Antolngia, vol. 11 (1866), p. 46: " I Pisani, fin dalla seconda meta del decimo 
secolo, cornpariscono nella storia liberi in mare e sudditi in terra." In this 
connection the concluding words of the celebrated Concordia of Bishop 
Daibert seem to me suggestive: "Volumus deinde vos scire, quod quisquis, 
superbia qualibet infiatus, hanc pacem et concordiam servare noluerit,... 
propterea sit excommunicatus ; et omnes custodite vos ab eo sicuti ab heretico 
damnato et ab ecclesia Dei separato, neque in ecclesia neque in navi cum eo 
aliquam communionem habeatis." (Bonaini, Statuti inediti, op. cit. vol. 1, 
pp. 17-18.) Instead of "neque in navi" we should have expected "neque in 
pisana urbe" or " neque in civitate." The Pisan Commune was still " in navi." 

3 Of these diplomas that of Frederick Barbarossa alone remains to us (see 
Dal Borgo, Dipl. pis. p. 32); but we possess documentary evidence of a 
diploma of Conrad II in a confirmation of Pope Alexander IV (1254-1261); 
while the existence of a still earlier privilege, granted by Lothair of Saxony 
about the year 1132, may, perhaps, be inferred from the phraseology of the 
diplomas of Frederick I and Henry VI: "retro a triginta annis..." "retro a 
sexaginta annis." Volpe, Studi suite istituzioni comunali a Pisa (Cittd e Con- 
tado, Consoli e Podestd), sec. xii-xiii, pp. 1-2 notes. See also, in addition to 
the authorities there cited, Bonaini, Dipl. pis. p. 104, doc. xxxiv. 



8 A FLOATING REPUBLIC [ch. 

Of the steps by which Pisa achieved her independence we 
know nothing in detail, though the general character of the 
movement is clear enough. As we have already seen 1 , the Bar- 
barian invasions had infused a strong strain of wholesome 
northern blood into the veins of the citizens; it was no weak 
southern race that built up the might of Pisa. Neither, perhaps, 
was the northern emigration yet over. If we may believe the 
chronicles, "the seven barons from whom were descended the 
seven great houses" only came southward in 972, in the suite 
of the first Otho 2 . Judging from the long list of names to be 
found in the documents, not only was the population, from the 
eleventh century onwards, still largely Teutonic, but, what is 
even more material, the men in whose hands the Commune was, 
or, at any rate, the central and more important nucleus of it, were, 
beyond question of peradventure, men of Longobard, Frank or 
German origin 3 . In the aggregate they formed a compact group 
of families, the richest and strongest in the city, owners of all 
or nearly all the ships which went to make up the fleets of Pisa. 
United by common interests and by oaths which bound them 
to one another and to their chiefs, they early established those 
sea customs — consuetudines quas habent de Mart — which were 
approved in 1075 by P°P e Gregory VII and confirmed, six 
years later, by the Emperor Henry IV 4 . At first, of course, 
these customs can have had no validity or coercive power ex- 
cept as between the associates themselves, and, even for them, 
only when engaged in maritime undertakings. They were, in 
fact, the laws of the floating republic I have spoken of above. 
But the associates were not only merchant adventurers: they 
possessed towers in Pisa and lands in the contado; and they 

1 P. 4 supra. 

2 Cronaca pisana di Raniera Sardo, in Arch. Stor. It. S. I, T. vi, P. 11, 
p. 75: "Anni Domini novecentosessantadue, fue traslatato lo Imperio alii 
Alamanni, e venni a Pisa Otto prirno, Imperatore Tedesco; e piacendogli lo 
stallo a lui e alia sua gente, rimansenci sette suoi baroni ; delli quali dicesono 
le sette case ; cioe quelli di casa Matti degli Orlandi e di Ripafratta e Gaitani 
e Duodi e Gusmani e Vesconti e Verchionesi; li quali tutti brevileggio e a 
loro diede molti doni lo ditto Imperadore." 

3 Volpe, Pisa e i Longobardi, op. cit. p. 384. 

4 Muratori, Antiquitates , iv, 19. 



i] A FLOATING REPUBLIC 9 

must have quickly realized that that same oath-fellowship (con- 
juratio) which enabled them to achieve freedom and supremacy 
at sea might prove an equally effective weapon on dry land. 
Thus, side by side with the lawfully constituted powers of the 
state, we find a voluntary private association, continually grow- 
ing in power and importance, gradually usurping public attri- 
butions, and, at last, blossoming into the free Commune 1 . 

Exactly when this change took place we do not know. Ac- 
cording to the fabulous accounts of the elder writers, Pisa owed 
her liberty to the Carlovingians and was governed by her own 
consuls in the ninth century 2 . Professor Fumi, on the other 
hand, apparently attributes the institution of the consulate to 
the year 1033 3 ; but even this would seem to be too early. The 
first documentary evidence which we possess of the existence 
of such a magistracy is, I believe, to be found in the so-called 
"Carta sarda" by which Mariano de' Laccon, Judge of Torres 
or Logudoro in Sardinia, granted certain commercial privileges 
and exemptions to his Pisan allies, "for the honour of Bishop 
Gherardo and of Viscount Ugo and of all the Consuls of Pisa 
and of all my friends in Pisa — pro honor e de xu piscopum Gelardu 
e de Ocu visconte e de omnes consolos de Pisas e ffecila pro honor e 
de omnes ammicos meos de Pisas." Its date is fixed by the allusion 
to Gherardo who occupied the Pisan see from 1080 to 1085 4 . 
As yet, however, the Consulship was almost certainly nothing 
better than a temporary commission or balia, appointed for a 
specified purpose and ceasing to exist when the work was 

1 In the almost total absence of Pisan sources, many valuable analogies 
may be drawn from the Compagna of Genoa. Compare, for example, 
C. Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, Caff or o e i suoi tempi (Torino, Roux, 1894), 
cap. 11: "Origine e costituzione del Comune," and Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 86— 
91. See also, on the subject generally, G. Volpe, QuestionifondamenialisulV ori- 
gine e svolgimento dei Comuni Italiani (Lee. x-xiv), Pisa, Tip. Successori 
Fratelli Nistri, 1904. 

2 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 41. 

3 Fumi, Codice dipl. della Cittd d' Orvieto (Firenze, Vieusseux, 1844), 
p. iii: "Pisa ha memorie consolari non prima del 1033...." 

4 It was first published by Tanfani, Due Carte lnedite in Lingua Sarda dei 
secoli XI e XIII, in Arch. Stor. It. S. in, T. xm, p. 357. Compare Besta, 
op. cit. 1, 83, and authorities there cited. At first sceptical, he is now disposed 
to accept the document as genuine, and its authenticity is, I believe, no 
longer open to question. 



io A FLOATING REPUBLIC [ch. 

finished for the performance of which it had been called into 
being. The diploma which the Emperor Henry IV granted to 
the Pisans, in 1081, contains no mention of consuls, though we 
read of hominum duodecim elected by the associates in a general 
assembly, summoned by the sound of bells — in colloquio facto 
sonantibus campanis 1 . Evidently, at that time, the Pisans had 
no consuls or they would have been mentioned. The same 
thing is true of the celebrated Concordia made by Bishop 
Daibert, in 1090; or, perhaps, even a year or two earlier, 
though, as Professor Villari justly remarks, all the elements of 
the Commune were then present 2 . There was a Commune Con- 
silium of Sapientes or Boni homines, a species of Senate, and a 
Colloquium Civitatis or General Assembly of all the citizens, 
afterwards to develop into the Parlamentum or Arrengo. Five 
' ' strenuous and wise men," whose names are given in the docu- 
ment, sat in counsel with the Bishop 3 . These were the imme- 
diate precursors of the consuls, who, in 1094, are at last men- 
tioned in another Concordia of the same Daibert, and to their 
authority he explicitly appeals: hujus civitatis consulibus*. Per- 
haps, however, the most striking proof of the advance which 
the associates had made towards autonomy is to be found in 
the fact that the first name in the list of the strenui et sapientes 
viri spoken of above is that of Pietro Visconte — Petrus Vice- 
comes 5 . 

At the dawn of the communal era, the Visconte, as the deputy 
and representative of the Countess Matilda, shared with the 
Bishop the lawfully constituted government of the city. The 
office was an hereditary one, and, here as elsewhere, the official 
title was early adopted by the holders as their family name. 
As the foremost citizens of Pisa, the Visconti could by no 
means afford to stand aside from the life of the city, and since, 

1 Muratori, Antiq. iv. 20. 

2 Villari, I primi due secoli delta Storia di Firenze (Firenze, Sansoni, 1898), 
vol. 1, pp. 87-88. 

3 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, op. cit. I, 16: " adiunctis mihi sociis viris strenuis 
et sapientibus Petro Vicecomite, scilicet Rolando et Stephano Guinezone, 
Mariniano, et Alberto." 

4 Muratori, Antiq. in, 1099; Bonaini, Statuti inediti, ill, 890-891. 

5 See note 3 above. 



i] A FLOATING REPUBLIC n 

as we have seen, the whole of the commerce and industry of 
Pisa, its fleets and its armies, were controlled by a private as- 
sociation of merchants and armatori, the Visconti early took 
advantage of their position to assume the leadership of the 
associates. Thus, in the African expedition of 1088, we have 
record of a Ugo Vicecomes films Ugonis Vicecomitis, who is 
spoken of as capud urbis ; while, in a document of 1 1 14 referring 
to the Balearic War, the names of three members of the family 
appear in conjunction with those of the Consuls 1 . By joining 
the associates the Visconte had, however, lost much of his 
original authority and had become merely primus inter pares. 
The last evidence which we possess of his appearance in a ju- 
dicial capacity belongs, I believe, to the year 1116 2 . On the 
other hand, the ancient office of the Gastaldo, the economic 
head of the royal and marchesal curtis of the city, had long been 
united to that of the Visconte, and, as Gastaldo, the Visconte 
still retained the right of levying ripaticum, dues in respect of 
the weighing of iron, and tolls payable by bakers, by vendors 
of wine and oil and, in fact, by all the Arti — a last survival of 
the tributes and praestationes which the dominus had been wont 
to exact from the half-free labourers and craftsmen of the 
curtis 3 . Up to 1 153, the Visconti continued to enjoy all the 
rights and emoluments of the Gastaldato together with a pre- 
ponderant position in the Consular College; but they never 

1 Liber Maiolichinns (edition C. Calisse, Roma, 1904), p. 139: "acta &c. 
sub Petro venerabili Pisane ecclesie archiepiscopo atque Gerardo, Petro, 
Gerardo Vicecomitibus, Athone, Ennrigo, &c, consulibus." 

2 Volpe, Studi sulle istituzioni comunali a Pisa, op. cit. p. 3. 

3 Ibid. pp. 3-4. The economic system established in Italy during the 
Longobard domination and known as the "sistema curtense" (Hofsystem) 
was based upon the patrimonial and administrative union of numerous sub- 
ject territories directly dependent upon a dominant estate or edifice and 
governed by the proprietor (dominus) or by his representative (gastaldus, 
actor, massarius). The dominant estate was generally called the curtis, a 
word which equally indicates the enclosed space surrounding the edifice 
and the ideal union of all the rural dependencies, whether servile (fundi 
servientes), or simply dependent (casae ingenuiles, massariciae, aldionales). 
Nor were the cities excluded from this system. In the cities the Longobards 
planted the largest and most powerful of their curtes : the curtes regiae. See 
on the whole subject Solmi, Le Associazioni in Italia avanti le Origini del 
Comune; Saggio di Storia economica e giuridica (Modena, 1898), Cap. 11, 
p. 35 et seq. and especially pp. 38-39, 44-45- 



12 A FLOATING REPUBLIC [ch< 

ceased to regret their lost supremacy nor to intrigue against the 
government of which they themselves formed so large a part. 
Finally, on the eve of the first descent of Barbarossa, they 
broke into open revolt, and, under the leadership of Alberto, 
" Vicecomes major," the head of the consorteria, fought fiercely 
through the streets and from the towers 1 . In the end, however, 
the consuls were victorious, with the result that the Visconti 
were deprived of all their fiscal privileges, which from thence- 
forward inured to the Commune 2 . 

There remained the Archbishop; but with the Archbishop 
the Commune had, as yet, no quarrel; rather did it seek to ad- 
vance beneath his aegis. In those days, an ecclesiastical sanction 
was the best guaranty, the surest foundation, the most authori- 
tative title to all political power, without which even the Em- 
perors could hardly hope to hold their own. The infant Com- 
mune had need of its Archbishop. The result of their alliance 
was a mixed government, ecclesiastical and lay, sovereign by a 
two-fold jurisdiction in the territory and the diocese, with 
attributions which, even if they were really separate, appear to 
us, at this distance of time, confused and blended 3 . The Com- 
mune had, in fact, succeeded to all the power of the Visconte, 
and, from the first decade of the twelfth century, we find the 
Consuls intervening in many transactions which affected the 
temporalities of the Pisan Church both in the city and in the 
contado. On the other hand, the Archbishop, and especially in 
the times which preceded and followed a naval expedition, 
exercised a political and administrative authority which, though 
resting upon no Imperial diploma, was none the less real and 
effective. That Bishop Gherardo (i 080-1 085) and Daibert 

1 For an excellent account of the Pisan towers, see Miss N. Erichsen's 
part of The Story of Pisa ("Mediaeval Towns" Series), pp. 126-140. 

2 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, 1, 18 (28 Oct. 1154, Pisan style): "Item, in 
totum illud quod prescripti Vicecomites de ripa terrae et aquae, et de pesa 
centenarii ferri, et de fornariis et venivendulis et oleariis, et de omnibus 
artibus soliti sunt habere et suscipere, et in castaldatum, eos sic in per- 
petuum condemnamus, ut nichil iuris eis ulterius habeant, et inde ab hora 
in antea nichil recipiant neque habeant; sed ea omnia nostrae civitatis iuri 
publico damus, concedimus et in perpetuum vendicamus." 

3 Volpe, op. cit. p. 9 et seq. Cf. Rondoni, Sena Vetus (Torino, 1892), p. 16. 



i] A FLOATING REPUBLIC 13 

(1089-1104) should have issued proclamations for the security 
of the city and the concord of the citizens, determining the 
height of the towers and the legal formalities to be followed in 
destroying the houses of the disobedient 1 , does not surprise us: 
the Commune was yet in embryo; but the decree of Ruggiero I, 
in 1 129, stands upon quite a different footing and proves, if 
proof be needed, that, even after their government had been 
firmly established, the Consuls still continued to work hand in 
hand with the Archbishop 2 . 

From the nature of the case, the Territorial jurisdiction of 
the nascent Commune had been purely voluntary, representing 
as it were the sum of all the fragments of authority which the 
associated families separately enjoyed and exercised. In pro- 
cess of time, however, as the associative nucleus acquired 
greater cohesion and stability, a vigorous collective life de- 
stroyed the personality of the individual associates, and, little 
by little, those jurisdictional rights which its members had 
previously exercised over their own allodial and feudal estates 
were transferred to the body politic 3 . Thus, almost from the 
first, the new-born Commune possessed considerable terri- 
torial jurisdiction, and this it naturally sought to consolidate 
and enlarge with the result that it was brought into immediate 
conflict with Lucca. During the Longobard period, Lucca 
alone of all the cities of Tuscany was governed by a Duke, who 
exercised surveillance over the other cities governed by 
Gastaldi 4 ; at Lucca alone was money coined 5 ; the Lucchese 

1 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, I, pp. n, 33 ; and for the Concordia of Daibert, 
pp. 16-18. 2 Bonaini, Dipl. Pis. p. 7. 

3 Volpe, Questioni fondamentali, etc., op. cit. po. 23-24. Considerations 
such as these enable us to understand how, in the early days of communal 
freedom, public ambassadors were sent on behalf of private citizens: see, 
for example, Del Vecchio e Casanova, he Rappresaglie nei Comiini Medi- 
oevali (Bologna, Zanichelli, 1894), pp. 101-102. 

4 Volpe, Pisa e i hongobardi, ubi cit., p. 375. Professor Villari, I primi due 
Secoli, etc. op. cit. 1, 64, records a "Dux civitatis Florentinorum, Gudibrandus " 
whom he believes to have been placed there by the Longobards. Professor 
Volpe, on the other hand, thinks that Gudibrandus was "assai probabil- 
mente un Duca Carolingio, o detto dal partito franco negli anni di sfacelo 
del regno longobardo e riconosciuto, sebbene a malincuore, da Carlo." 

5 There seems to have been Pisan money, but coined at Lucca. It bore 
the legend " Flavia Pisa." (Volpe, ubi cit. p. 389, citing G. Di S. Quintano, 
Delia Zecca e delle mon. lucchesi, p. 30.) 



i 4 A FLOATING REPUBLIC [ch.i 

territory increased enormously until its confines marched with 
those of Volterra, Populonia and Roselle; it would almost seem 
that Pisa became a part, albeit a distinct and separate part, of 
the Duchy of Lucca. Even in the ninth and tenth centuries, 
when Tuscany had become a true and proper territory of con- 
fines for defence against the Saracens, Lucca, though an inland 
town, continued to be the principal seat of the Marquises: a 
state of things which would be quite inexplicable except upon 
the ground of long custom and unbroken tradition. Mean- 
while, the diocese of Lucca, though smaller than the political 
territory, had likewise grown exceedingly until the narrowed 
diocese of Pisa was cooped up and hemmed in on every side 
except towards the sea 1 . When, at last, the Pisans began to 
aspire to territorial sovereignty, they found every avenue of 
peaceable expansion barred by the overgrown territories of 
Lucca. As early as 1004, Murangone tells us that "Pisani fe- 
cerunt bellum cum Lucensibus et vicerunt illos in Aqualonga" ; 
while, in 1055, according to the same chronicler, "fuit bellum 
inter Pisanos et Lucenses ad Vacule. Pisani vero gratia Dei 
vicerunt illos 2 ." 

Born amid the clash of arms and cradled on the waves, what 
wonder if the Pisan Commune sprang, as it were at one bound, 
into full and vigorous life ? Struggle is a necessary condition of 
evolution, and through continued struggle Pisa achieved the 
hegemony of Tuscany and supremacy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. 
What matter if her day was short ? It was crowded with splen- 
did hours, any one of which was worth living for 3 . 

1 Volpe, ubi cit. pp. 375-388. 

2 Arch. Stor. It. Serie 1, Tom. VI, Parte 11, pp. 4, 5. With regard to these 
dates it may, perhaps, be as well to remind the reader that, according to 
the Pisan method of computation, the year began with the 25th of March, - 
dating ab incarnatione. This was the case also with the Sienese and Florentine 
calendars; but, while the two last mentioned peoples dated their year from 
the 25th of March following the beginning of the common year, the Pisans 
dated theirs from the 25th of March preceding the beginning of the common 
year. 

3 Mr Howells, in his Tuscan Cities, calls the modern Pisa a " beautiful 
ghost." She died in the fifteenth century. Of states and cities, as of men, 
the old Roman speaks sooth: 

Soles occidere et redire possunt: 
nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux, 
nox est perpetua una dormienda. 



CHAPTER THE SECOND 

THE EXPULSION OF MOGAHID 
FROM SARDINIA 

At the beginning of the eleventh century the tide of Saracen 
invasion was at its height, and it seemed as though the Tyr- 
rhenian Sea, nay, even the Mediterranean itself, was destined 
to be converted into a Moslem lake. Before its close the Com- 
munes of Pisa and Genoa had freed their sea from foreign in- 
vaders. Thereafter, they swept the coasts of Africa, and, sword 
in hand, imposed commercial treaties upon their old antago- 
nists. The conquest of Sicily by the Normans and the victories 
of the Venetians in the Adriatic, with the consequent acquisition 
of trading privileges in the Levant, were contemporaneous with 
these achievements, and all of them prolegomenal to the 
Crusades. 

Already, in the tenth century, the Pisans had fought the 
Saracens in Calabria 1 , and, perhaps, also in Spain and Africa 2 ; 
while, in 1004, a Moslem fleet sailed up the Arno and sacked a 
quarter of the city 3 . To avenge this insult and to defend their 

1 Marangone, Cronaca pisana, in Arch. Stor. It. S. 1, T. vi, P. 11, p. 4: 
"dcccclxxi. Fuerunt Pisani in Calabria." Compare Amari, Storia dei 
Musulmani, op. cit. 11, 311, 313, and Manfroni, op. cit. p. 64. 

2 Amari, Prime imprese degli Italiani nel Mediterraneo, ubi cit. p. 46. 

3 Chronicon pisanum apud Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, vi, 107, and Brevi- 
arium pisanae historiae, ibid. 167; Marangone, ubi cit. p. 4, all in the Pisan 
year 1005. The Breviarium, which was compiled at the end of the thirteenth 
century, adds that the Saracens had previously menaced Rome, but this 
Amari believes to be a fable, invented to magnify the merits of the Pisans in 
the eyes of the Papal court and to bolster up the story of the cession of Sar- 
dinia. Later historians attribute this raid of the Saracens to the same year 
as the battle of Reggio and tell us that it took place during the absence of the 
Pisan fleet. In their pages, the terrible Mogahid (Musetto) appears as the 
leader of the infidels and the lady Cinzica or Kinzica as the heroine who 
aroused the Pisans to resistance. Compare Santoro, La leggenda di Cinzica, 
in Studi Storici, 1, 251. 



16 THE EXPULSION OF MOGAHID [ch. 

commerce, the Pisans attacked Reggio 1 . No trustworthy details 
of the expedition have come down to us 2 , though, according to 
a comparatively modern legend, it was undertaken at the in- 
stance of the learned French monk, Gerbert of Aurillac, who, 
after he had ascended the Papal throne with the title of Syl- 
vester II, proclaimed a crusade for the deliverance of Jeru- 
salem. On his invitation, the Pisans put to sea and assailed and 
slaughtered the first infidels they encountered. The story, how- 
ever, appears to be quite without foundation 3 . The Pisans were 
above all else traders, and the reasons of all their wars and all 
their voyages were at the bottom economic reasons. Had it 
been otherwise, they would have differed profoundly from their 
fellow-men in every age of the world's history. Even the siege 
of Troy was, probably, undertaken less for the beaux yeux of 
Helen, 

...the face that launched a thousand ships 
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium, 

than because that city commanded the entrance to the Euxine. 
If the Saracens had not interfered with Pisan commerce, it is 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 4: "mvi. Fecerunt Pisani bellum cum Saracenis 
ad Regium, et gratia Dei vicerunt illos in die Sancti Sixti." 

2 All that is known of the battle of Reggio will be found in Amari, Storia 
dei Musulmani, op. cit. vol. II, lib. iv, cap. vn, p. 341, and vol. in, lib. v, 
cap. 1, p. 3. 

3 Amari informs us that the legend of the pious motive of the Pisan 
expedition arose as follows: "Among the Epistolae of Gerbert, published 
by the Benedictines of the Congregation of Saint Maur (Recueil des His- 
toriens des Gaules, T. x, p. 426, n. cvii), is one of 999, in which the Pope, 
lamenting the profanation of Jerusalem by the infidels, addresses the follow- 
ing exhortation to some unknown Christian: Enitere ergo, miles Christi, esto 
signifer et compugnator, et quod armis nequis, consilii et opum auxilio subveni. 
It is true that in these words we find an immature idea of a Crusade and a 
demand for oblations for the holy enterprise. The learned editors add a note 
to the effect that the Pisans responded immediately by putting out to sea and 
attacking the Saracens. In support of this statement they cite Muratori, 
Rer. Italic. Script. Ill, 400; but, on referring to the passage in question, we 
find that the only source is, in fact, a modern municipal panegyric of the 
most exaggerated character, to wit the lengthy notes which Costantino 
Gaietani supplied to the Lives of the Popes of Pandolfo Pisano, printed in 
Rome in 1638 and republished by Muratori in that volume. We are there- 
fore forced to fall back upon Tronci and worse, and all connection between 
the Epistola of Gerbert of 999 and the battle of 1005 vanishes away" (Amari, 
op. cit. in, 3 n.). 



n] FROM SARDINIA 17 

extremely doubtful whether the Pisans would have quarrelled 
with the Saracens. 

The Moslem fleet which renewed the war, in ion, and, in 
the evidently exaggerated language of Marangone, " destroyed" 
Pisa, issued from the ports of Spain 1 ; and from Spain also, four 
years later, came those Saracen corsairs who, under the leader- 
ship of the terrible Mogahid (the Musetto or Mugetto of the 
Italian chroniclers) occupied Sardinia and once more raided 
the Tuscan littoral, only to be routed in the end by the allied 
navies of Pisa and Genoa. 

From the expulsion of the Carthaginians, in 231 B.C., to the 
Vandal invasions in the fifth century of our era, Sardinia had 
been a Roman Province, and when, after eighty years of bar- 
baric rule, the Vandal Kingdom of Africa was destroyed by 
Belisarius she once more returned to the Empire, though now 
as a dependency not of Rome but of Constantinople. This was 
in 533. In 551, both Corsica and Sardinia were conquered by 
Totila, but the Ostrogothic Kingdom came to an end two years 
later, and the islands were once more added to the Empire. 

After the expulsion of the Vandals, Sardinia formed one of 
the seven provinces governed by the praefectus praetorio of 
Africa, and, like Numidia and Mauretania, possessed her own 
praeses and her own dux. The former, as head of the civil ad- 
ministration, resided at Cagliari, the ancient capital of the 
island; the latter established his headquarters at Forum Trai- 
anum at the mouth of the Tirso. From the time of Justinian 
these officials were in perpetual conflict — "judices civiles et 
militares semper invicem contendentes " — and, little by little, 
the stratocracy invaded the province of the civil magistrates. 
As late as 627 we still meet with a praeses and it is by no means 
certain that he was the last. Eventually, however, the military 
authority wholly absorbed the civil, and it is probable that, 
before the end of the seventh century, Sardinia was organized 
as a Theme. Thenceforward the island was governed by a Iudex 
I Sardiniae or "Ap^cov, whose functions were both civil and mili- 
tary. In all the western dependencies of Byzantium, such 

1 "mxii. Stolus de Ispania venit Pisas et destruxit earn.' 



18 THE EXPULSION OF MOGAHID [ch. 

magistracies tended to be monopolized by particular families 
and to become hereditary. Such was the case with the Princes 
of Capua and Salerno, the Duke of Naples, the Archons of 
Amalfi and Gueta, all of them subject in name, rather than in 
fact. So far as Sardinia is concerned, this evolution probably 
completed itself while the Empire was occupied with the de- 
fence of Italy and Sicily against the Saracens, and certainly the 
tenth century saw the hov\da of the Archon changed to 
alliance. 

Hardly, however, had the Sardinians achieved their inde- 
pendence than the unity of the Archonship became a thing of 
the past and the island was divided into four separate and inde- 
pendent jurisdictions known as Iudicatus or Judgeships. Un- 
hampered by any vestige of subjection, the power of the Judges 
was practically absolute. They assumed the title of reges and 
even of imperatores, styling themselves such divina gratia , or 
gratia Dei, or bolantade de donneu deu. One of them even went 
so far as to declare himself a Deo electus et coronatus — phraseo- 
logy which might seem to imply that the crown was here- 
ditary by divine right. Yet the elective principle interwove it- 
self normally with the dynastic, and as late as the thirteenth 
century we still find traces of the ancient legal theory which 
recognized the sovereignty of the indices as emanating from the 
people. Indeed, so ineffectual was the ius haer editor inm alone 
to insure succession that we constantly see the son associated 
with the father in the government of the state — a practice which 
was obviously modelled upon methods adopted in Constanti- 
nople to secure the transmission of Imperial power. To the 
validity of this association, however, the consent of the people 
appears to have been necessary. Males took precedence over 
females, and, as a rule, the eldest son succeeded. If there were 
no males, the daughters inherited and their rights passed to 
their husbands. Thus the husband of the daughter who suc- 
ceeded became the index — a state of things which enables us to 
understand that furious competition for the hands of Sardinian 
heiresses which early opened the way to foreign usurpation. 
For the rest, the sistema consorziale, so widely diffused among 



ii] FROM SARDINIA 19 

the feudatories of the continent, was not indigenous to Sardinia, 
and if, before election, each male member of the dominant 
family had a chance of being called to the throne, after election, 
every claim to sovereignty was extinguished in all of them except 
the chosen iudex or donnn. Only those who had received the 
oath of the people — sacramentum quod liberi et servi de Sardinia 
eorum dominis faciunt et facer e consueverunt — were the donnos; 
the other members of the reigning family bore the title of donni- 
cellos. Even in the case of condominii, the ideal unity of the 
government was not destroyed : theoretically each of the condo- 
minos possessed the same powers 1 . 

Such was the political condition of the island when it was 
invaded by the Saracens under Mogahid. 

Mogahid-ibn-Abd- Allah, who is said to have been born of 
Christian parents, was one of those servants of the Moslem 
Court who were known by the generic name of " Slavs 2 ." His 
master, the famous Almansor ('Ibn-abi-'Amir), not only emanci- 
pated him and trained him to arms, but also educated him in 
letters to such good purpose that, in after years, he passed as 
one well versed in philology and Koranic exegesis. He became 
a discriminating patron of learned men and a collector of codices 
treating of the various sciences 3 . The death of Almansor, in 



1 See on the whole subject Besta, La Sardegna Medioevale, op. cit., and 
especially the first three chapters of the second volume. The legend which 
attributes the institution of the Sardinian Judgeships to the Pisans is, of 
course, the veriest fable, a product of the latter half of the Dugento, in- 
vented, like so many other legends of the same kind, to bolster up the claims 
of the Commune to Sardinian overlordship. Its absurdity has been so often 
pointed out that it might almost seem superfluous to refer to it in this place 
had not it once more been related as serious history by Mrs Janet Ross, 
The Story of Pisa, op. cit. pp. 9, 10. 

2 Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, op. cit. 11, 169; Gibbon, Decline and Fall 
of the Roman Empire, chap. 55. Already Venetian dealers seem to have 
excelled all competitors in supplying the harems and slave-markets of the 
Mussulman world. Pola in Istria is mentioned as the principal seat of their 
trade ; and we know that in the tenth century, the Caliph of Cordova had a 
body-guard of Hungarian slaves (Hodgson, op. cit. pp. 150, 151, and Gfrorer, 
Byzantinische Geschichteti, 1, pp. 85 and 274, there cited). 

3 See Amari, Prime imprese, etc., ubi cit., p. 48, and Notizie della impresa 
de y Pisani su le Baleari secondo le sorgenti arabiche, by the same author. It 
is published in the Liber Maiolichinus (edition cited). The passage referred 

2 — 2 



20 THE EXPULSION OF MOGAHID [ch. ii 

1002, was followed by the fall of the Caliphate, and Moslem 
Spain rapidly split up into a number of independent princi- 
palities. With the extinction of the Omayyads (1036) the last 
semblance of unity disappeared: the Berber generals shared the 
south; the Slavs ruled the East, while the rest was divided 
either among successful adventurers or among the small number 
of ncble families who had been fortunate enough to escape the 
blows which 'Abd-al-Rahman and Almansor had struck at the 
aristocracy. Finally, the two most important towns, Cordova 
and Seville, were organized as republics 1 . In this welter of war 
and anarchy Mogahid played a prominent part. Having escaped 
from Cordova, he occupied Tortosa, abandoned it and took 
Denia, where he set up a Cailiff of straw, a certain Abu-Abd- 
Allah al Mu'ayti, whom he proclaimed Commander of the 
Faithful and to whom he swore fealty in 1014. Together they 
passed over to the Balearic Islands, which had formed part of 
the Caliphate of Cordova since 937 ; and thence, in the summer 
of 1015, Mogahid sailed for Sardinia with 1000 horse and 120 
ships, little and great 2 . 

Already, in 710, 752, 813, 816, 817 and 935, the Saracens 
had raided the island, but they had never wholly subjugated it. 
The difficult nature of the country, the frequent shipwrecks on 
its rocky coasts and the warlike character of its inhabitants in- 
spired them with so much dread that, for over three-quarters 
of a century, they had let the Sardinians severely alone, holding 
them an indomitable folk from whom they were likely to gain 
more hard knocks than plunder 3 . Mogahid seems to have 
landed in the Cagliaritano, where he broke the islanders with 
terrible slaughter and captured a large number of prisoners, 



to will be found on pp. xlix, 1. In w. 2635, 2636 of the poem itself, we 
read of a 

Sarcina cartarum, quam vir tellure levare 

Vix posset. 
These, according to the learned editor, probably formed a portion of the 
codices collected by Mogahid. 

1 Encyclopaedia Britannica (ninth edition), vol. xxn, p. 315. 

2 Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, op. cit. in, 4, 5. 

3 See the Arab chronicles cited by Amari, op. cit. in, 6. 



1015] FROM SARDINIA 21 

mostly women and children 1 . From the low- lying regions of 
the coast, he extended his ravages to the mountains of the in- 
terior and not improbably joined hands with the Barbaricini 
who inhabited the Alpine country about M. Gennargentu 2 . 
The whole island lay at his mercy. 

Rex fuerat Balee Mugetus rexque Diane. 
Invasit Sardos rabida prestantior ira. 
His igitur propere violento marte subactis, 
Omnia cum piano tenuit montana tyrampnus 3 . 

That same summer, either before or after the conquest of Sar- 
dinia, Saracen corsairs appeared off the coasts of Italy and 
sacked the ancient city of Luni 4 . The outrage aroused the 
Italians to a sense of their peril, and the merchant adventurers 
of Pisa and Genoa sailed to the rescue of Sardinia 5 . Even the 
nobles did not scorn to take their turn at the oar — 

Tunc non erubuit quisquam de nobilitate 
Viribus equoreas remos urguere per undas 6 — 

and so great was their eagerness to join battle with the foe that 
the poet likens them to starving lions rushing on their prey 7 . 
According to the chroniclers, all this enthusiasm was due to the 
exhortations of Pope Benedict VHP; but it is at least equally 
probable that, as in the case of the battle of Reggio, the prin- 

1 Amari, Prime imprese, etc., ubi cit. p. 50; Storia dei Musulmani, op. cit. 
in, 7. 

2 The Barbaricini were the descendants of a Mauretanian colony estab- 
lished in Sardinia during the Vandal occupation, probably in the fifth cen- 
tury. The district which they inhabited was known as Barbagia. It is men- 
tioned by Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio, xxm, 94, and by Fazio degli Uberti, 
Dittamondo, in, 12. 

* Liber Maiolichinus, w. 924-927. 

4 Ditmar (Theitmarius), Chronicon (in Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum), 
lib. vrn, c. 33. As Amari acutely remarks, Ditmar was unlikely to be mis- 
informed as to the name of the city and province assailed by the Saracens. 
The rest of his narrative is evidently untrustworthy, representing the 
rumours which reached him in Germany. The sack of Luni is, probably, 
a fact (Amari, Scoria dei Musulmani, op. cit. in, 8 n.; Manfroni, op. cit. p. 93). 

6 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 4; Chronicon Pisanum and Breviarium apud 
Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. VI, 107, 167; under the Pisan year 1016. 

6 Liber Maiolichinus, w. 930, 931. 

7 Ibid. w. 934-938. 

8 See, for example, Ranieri Sardo, Cronaca pisana, in Arch. Stor. It, 
S. 1, T. vi, P. 11, p. 76. 






22 THE EXPULSION OF MOGAHID [ch. ii 

cipal reasons for the expedition were economic reasons. Neither 
the Pisans nor the Genoese can have failed to perceive how 
greatly their commerce must suffer if the Saracens were per- 
mitted to effect a permanent lodgment in Sardinia; and, there- 
fore, they were determined to expel them at all hazards 1 . 
Marangone chronicles the war with his usual impartial brevity : 
"Fecerunt Pisani et Ianuenses bellum cum Mugieto in Sar- 
dineam, et gratia Dei vicerunt ilium." Whether there was 
actually a battle we do not know. According to the Liber Maio- 
lichinus, which, except for its deliberate silence with regard to 
the Genoese, seems to be fairly trustworthy, Mogahid aban- 
doned the island on the approach of the Christian fleet, only to 
return with large reinforcements in the following year. He 
wreaked a terrible vengeance on the wretched islanders, forcing 
them to labour on a fortress (cwitatem) which he was construct- 
ing, and then walling them up alive in the masonry 2 . Mean- 
while, however, his followers were becoming impatient of the 
toils of war in a different country with little to reward them in 
the way of booty, and when, in May, 1016, the fleets of Pisa 
and Genoa once more appeared, he resolved to evacuate the 
island. Attacked by the Italians as they embarked, the infidels 
were utterly defeated, and their ruin was completed by a tem- 
pest which drove many of their ships ashore. The crews were 
butchered by the Sardinians, and, though Mogahid himself 
made good his escape to Denia, his brother, his son Ali, and 
also, as some say, a favourite wife, were captured by the 
Christians. The victory was not only complete but decisive. 
Mogahid never again invaded Sardinia, and until his death in 
the year of the Hegira 436 (1044- 1045 A - D 0> his energies were 
fully occupied in the internecine wars which now lacerated 
Moslem Spain 3 . 

1 Amari, Prime imprese, etc., ubi cit. p. 51 and note; Storia del Musulmarri, 
op. cit. in, 7, 8; Manfroni, op. cit. p. 93. 

2 Liber Maiolichinus , w. 940-952; Marangone, ubi cit. ad annum 1017. 

3 Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, op. cit. ill, 9, 10, and Nottzie della impresa 
de y Pisani sulle Baleari secondo le sorgenti arabiche, ubi cit. pp. Ii, lii; Besta, 
op. cit. vol. 1, c. v: "La spedizione e la sconfitta di Museto." According to 
the Cronaca pisana of Ranieri Sardo {ubi cit. pp. 67-77) Mogahid (Mugetto) 
once more invaded Sardinia in 1021 "e caccionne li Pisani che v' erano" 



1016] FROM SARDINIA 23 

Sardinia was rich in flocks and herds and grain and slaves 1 ; 
its marshes afforded practically inexhaustible supplies of salt; 
its mountains were seamed with precious metals, and its coasts 
abounded in sponges and coral 2 . Both Pisa and Genoa desired 
to exploit it commercially ; neither could brook the presence of 
a rival and no sooner were the Saracens defeated than the victors 
turned their arms against one another. The Genoese seem to 
have been the aggressors and the conflict which they provoked 



only to be expelled in his turn by the Pisans and Genoese. As a reward for 
their services the latter were allotted the whole of the spoil, leaving the 
island itself in possession of the Pisans: "e di piana concordia e patto alii 
Genovesi rimase lo tezoro e alii Pisani la terra." Other wars followed. In 
1028 Pisa itself is said to have been burned by Mogahid, "colli Saracini di 
Barbaria." Then, in 1030, he was taken prisoner at Carthage and carried to 
Rome, where "fu fatto cristiano dal papa, e fu coronato re di Cartagine; 
della quale citta si fece poi Tunisi." Finally, in 1050, after he had been 
dead and buried for five or six years, "lo re Mugetto con suo isforzo prese 
la Sardigna, e fecevi citta e castella e molte fortesse." The Pisans sailed to 
attack him but stopped to annex Corsica, whereupon "lo re Mugetto sen- 
tendo la loro venuta arse tutta la Sardigna, e poi si parti e andossene in 
Barbaria." (See also Roncioni, ubi cit. pp. 53-102.) On the other hand, the 
Genoese boldly maintained that they and they alone had reconquered 
Sardinia for the Empire; "et regem nomine Musaitum ceperunt et omnia 
sua, duxeruntque eum in civitatem nostram tamquam captum hostem, et 
consules episcopum, qui tunc Ianue erat, mandaverunt ad imperatorem 
Alamannie ducentem secum predictum regem Musaitum." (See Annali 
Genovesi di Caffaro e de' suoi continuatori (edition Belgrano, Roma, 1890), 
vol. 1, p. 161.) Such were the fables invented by the one Commune and the 
other in support of their respective claims to Sardinian overlordship. It was 
an age when almost anything was accepted as evidence and when even 
churchmen deemed it no crime "to manipulate ancient writings, to edit 
history in their own favour." As every reader will remember, the claim 
of our own Edward I to the throne of Scotland was "supported by excerpts 
from monkish chronicles." The Pisans and Genoese were only following 
the methods of their day; but the results of their inventive industry were 
disastrous to many generations of historians, until, thanks to the inde- 
fatigable labours of Professor Michele Amari, it at last became possible 
to test the veracity of the Italian chroniclers by comparison with Moslem 
sources. 

1 That the Church of Rome itself bought slaves from Sardinia as early as 
the sixth century seems clear from one of the Episiolae of Gregory the Great. 
In it he expresses his desire "Barbaricina mancipia comparare" (M.G.H. 
ix, 123; Gregorius Vitali Defensori). According to Prof. Volpe (Pisa e i 
Longobardi, ubi cit. p. 373) the Barbaricini were sold to the Pisans in such 
numbers that they gave its name to the suburb of Barbaricina. (Compare 
Repetti, Dizionario cited, vol. 1, p. 257). 

2 Besta, op. cit. 1, 68, 71 ; Voipe, ubi cit. p. 383. 



24 THE EXPULSION OF MOGAHID [ch. ii 

ended in their expulsion 1 . Our only authorities are the Pisan 
chroniclers, and the whole story may possibly be a fable 2 , 
though no such inference can be drawn from the silence of the 
Genoese. It was not the habit of mediaeval chroniclers to record 
reverses. This much, however, is certain: the Pisans neither 
acquired nor sought to acquire dominion over the island, which 
continued to be ruled by its own judges. No hint of annexation 
is to be found in the most ancient sources, as yet uncontaminated 
by legendary elements ; nor does the celebrated epigraph on the 
facade of the Pisan Cathedral necessarily imply more than they 
do 3 . The merchant adventurers who expelled their Genoese 
allies from Sardinia, in 1016, were still simply members of a 
voluntary private association which possessed no legal status 
because, in its corporate capacity, it had not yet entered the 
feudal fold 4 . If they had indeed conquered Sardinia, they could 
have exercised no dominion over it: all the advantages of the 
conquest must have inured to their liege lords, the Marquises 
of Tuscany 5 . Not until the last quarter of the century, after 
the Vicariate of Corsica had been granted by Gregory VII to 

1 Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, vi, 167: "...et eodem anno (1017) Pisani et 
Ianuenses cum in turritano iudicatu essent, Ianuenses voluerunt Pisanos de 
Sardinea expellere, et sibi earn retinere; sed quamvis ipsi bellum incoe- 
perint, tamen devicti a Pisanis fuerunt, ita quod Pisani de tota Sardinea 
Ianuenses expulerunt." See also col. 108, and Marangone, ubi cit. p. 4. 

2 Such is apparently the opinion of Manfroni, op. cit. p. 95. See, however, 
Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, ill, 10, and Besta, op. cit. 1, 68. 

* Besta, op. cit. 1, 69, and authorities there cited, especially Vanni, Di 
alcune iscrizioni delta primaziale pisana, in Studi Storici, iv (1895), pp. 121, 
151. The epigraph referred to runs as follows: 

HIS MAIORA TIBI POST HEC VRBS CLARA DEDISTI 

VIRIBVS EXIMIIS CVM SVPERATA TVIS 
GENS SARACINORVM PERIIT SINE LAVDE SVORVM 

HINC TIBI SARDINIA DEBITA SEMPER ERIT. 

4 Compare my A History of Perugia (London, Methuen, 19 10), pp. 47- 
48 and notes. 

5 Besta, op. cit. 1, 69; Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, ill, 10-11, and notes. 
Thus at a much later period, when Mariano of Torres granted certain 
churches in his iudicatus to the Cathedral of St Mary of Pisa, a special clause 
was inserted in the instrument to prevent the Marquis of Tuscany taking 
advantage of the donation to lay claim to any jurisdiction over Sardinia. 
See Besta, op. cit. 1, 81, and the Liber iudicum turritanorum, app. doc. 1, 
there cited. 



ioi6-77] FROM SARDINIA 25 

Bishop Landolfo 1 , did Pisa even begin to aspire to the political 
hegemony of Sardinia. The commercial privileges granted by 
Mariano of Torres, about the year 1084 2 , were, perhaps, the 
earliest of those securitates quas habemus cum Sardiniae judicibus 
for the maintenance of which the Pisans were afterwards so 
careful to provide 3 . Throughout the whole of the eleventh cen- 
tury, there is no hint of overlordship but only of alliance. The 
most that Pisa had secured was a commercial hegemony upon 
the basis of which a political hegemony might subsequently be 
erected 4 . 

1 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 96; Besta, op. cit. I, 82. 

2 Besta, op. cit. 1, 82, 83. This is the same document as is referred to on 
p. 9 supra. 

3 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, 1, 10: Breve Consulum Pisanae Civitatis, ann. 

MCLXII. 

4 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 96 ; Besta, op. cit. I, 84 ; Volpe, Studi suite Istituzioni 
Comunali a Pisa, op. cit. p. 122. In the treaties of 16 January, 1150, with 
ibn-Sahid of Valencia, and of the 10 July, 1157, with ibn-Abi-Korasan of 
Tunis, Sardinia is still spoken of simply as a place frequented by Pisan 
merchants. Only in the last quarter of the century, in the treaties of June, 
1 184, with ibn-Ali, prince of the Balearic Islands, and of 15 November, 
1 1 86. with al-Mansur of Tunis, does Sardinia finally appear as one of the 
islands of Pisa, or in other words as forming part of the Pisan districtus. 
Besta, 1, 150, citing Amari, Diploma Arabi del R. Archivio fiorentino (Firenze, 
1863), pp. 239, 255, 275, etc. 



CHAPTER THE THIRD 

THE EXPEDITIONS AGAINST PALERMO 
AND MEHDIA 

Under the year 1035 (Pisan style) Marangone records a new 
expedition, undertaken by the Pisans alone against the Saracens 
of Africa: "Pisani fecerunt stolum in Africam ad civitatern 
Bonam; gratia Dei vicerunt illos." Later chroniclers added the 
conquest of Carthage to that of Bona and asserted that the vic- 
tors sent the crown of the Moslem king (afterwards confused 
with Mogahid 1 ) to the Emperor Conrad ; while, finally, we are 
told that "in the year of our Lord one thousand and thirty-five, 
the Pisans took the Lipari Islands by force of arms and gave 
them to the Emperor of Rome, and thereafter for a time they 
rested 2 ." 

The substratum of truth which underlies these fables is to 
be found in an expedition against Moezz-ibn-Badis, a powerful 
prince of the Zirite dynasty, who had built a fleet of warships 
at Mehdia (Almedia, Mahdiya) with which he infested the 
Mediterranean 3 . There seems to have been a naval engagement 
in the neighbourhood of Bona, which was subsequently sacked 
by the victors. Amari infers from an obscure passage in the 

1 See p. 22, n. 3, supra. In The Story of Pisa, op. cit. pp. 9, 10, Mrs Janet 
Ross not only confounds Mogahid with Moezz-ibn-Badis but sinks the per- 
sonality of the former in that of the latter, thus reversing, instead of correct- 
ing, the mistake of the chroniclers. Indeed, her whole account of the mari- 
time expeditions of this century is a hopeless jumble. She has blindly 
accepted the Pisan legends, embellished them with mistakes drawn from 
Sismondi, and then added more of her own. How, for example, could the 
Pisans, after taking Bona bring back "the Emir's crown as a present to the 
Emperor Henry II " ? Henry II had been in his grave for over a decade. 

2 Muratori, Rer. Italic. Script. VI, 167; Arch. Stor. It. S. 1, T. vi, P. 1, 
pp. 74-83; P. 11, pp. 5, 77; Tronci, Annali pisani (Livorno, Gio. Vincenzo 
Bonfigli, 1682), pp. 17, 18; Sismondi (edition cited), vol. 1, c. v, p. 123. 

3 Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, op. cit. II, 363, 364. 



1063] EXPEDITIONS— PALERMO AND MEHDIA 27 

chronicle of Rudolf the Bald that besides the Pisans there were 
Provencals and Genoese who took part in the battle 1 . Be this 
as it may, it is certain that the Arab city which had risen on the 
ruins of the ancient Carthage was not attacked, that no crowns 
were sent to the Emperor, and that that Lamberto Orlandi who 
is said to have received the baton of command from the Pisan 
Bishop is as much a product of the unbridled imagination of a 
later age as is the oration with which he is supposed to have 
animated his followers to the assault 2 . 

The next Pisan enterprise of which we have any knowledge 
is connected with the Norman conquest of Sicily. In 106 1 
Messina was lost to the Saracens 3 , and a great fleet which Moezz 
despatched to their assistance was scattered and destroyed by a 
sudden tempest off the island of Pantellaria 4 . Two years later, 
Temim (the Temino of the chronicles), who had succeeded his 
father Moezz, sent another fleet and army, but with no better 
fortune, since, after the battle of Cerami (June, 1063), all hope 
of effectual intervention was perforce abandoned 5 . Thereupon, 
the Pisans, who perhaps had already had dealings with Robert 
Guiscard 6 , offered their aid for the conquest of Palermo, and, 
ready alike for commerce or for war 7 , the whole male popula- 
tion, 

Omnes maiores, medii, pariterque minores 8 , 

hurried on board their ships and put out to sea. Early in Sep- 
tember, the stolus appeared off the northern coast of Sicily "in 

1 Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, ill, 13, citing Radulphus Glaber, Histori- 
arum lib. 1, cap. vu, in the Recueil des Historiens des Gaules, etc. T. x, p. 52. 

2 Manfroni, op. cit. 96, 97. 

3 Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, ill, 66-70. 

4 Ibid, ill, 81, 82. 

5 Ibid, in, 92-101 ; Manfroni, op. cit., p. 113. 

6 This may, perhaps, be deduced from Aime, Ystoire de li Normant 
(Rouen, A. Lestringant, 1892), lib. v, cap. 28. Compare Amari, op. cit., in, 
102, n. 1, and Manfroni, op. cit. p. 98. 

7 Gualfredi Malaterrae Historia Sicula, lib. 11, cap. 34, apud Muratori 
Rer. Ilal. Script, v, 569: "Pisani mercatores qui sepius navali commercio 
Panormum lucratum venire soliti erant...commercialibus lucris, plusquam 
bellicis exercitiis, ex consuetudine dediti...." 

8 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 5. The verse is taken from the commemorative 
inscription on the facade of the Pisan Cathedral. 



28 THE EXPEDITIONS AGAINST [ch. in 

portu vallis Deminae 1 ," whence orators were sent to Traina to 
invite the co-operation of Roger. Possibly the Pisans set too 
high a price upon their services, demanding, as became their 
habit in after years, commercial advantages and possession of 
a part of the conquered city. At any rate, the Normans delayed 
or refused their assistance, and, on the 20th September, 1063, 
the day of St Agapitus, the Pisans attacked alone 2 . 

At this time Palermo boasted no fewer than five hundred 
mosques and a population of between 300,000 and 350,000 
souls, about two-fifths of whom inhabited the vast suburbs 
which extended to the west as far as the village of Baida, on the 
lower declivities of the mountains, and on the south-east to 
the Oreto, along whose banks the orchard-lawns and gardens 
of delicious villas sloped inland till they mingled with the vine- 
yards at the village of Balhara (now Monreale). In the centre 
of the town, along the line of the modern Via Vittorio Emanuele, 
rose the Cassaro or Citta Vecchia, bathed by the waters of the 
harbour and strongly fortified with walls and towers. Over 
against it to the eastward, upon a peninsula with one side open 
to the sea, stood the Khalesa, the Neapolis or new town of 
Polybius' day, likewise fortified but less strongly than the Cas- 
saro. At the present time, all that remains of the mediaeval 
harbour is a small inlet, called "la Cala," which in the eleventh 
century formed its mouth; but the site of the two basins or 
lagoons into which it was divided may still be traced in the 
valleys on either side of the Via Vittorio Emanuele. Of these 
the basin to the north-west of the Cassaro, in the Quartiere 

1 Muratori, Rer. Italic. Script, v, 569. As to the provinces of Val di 
Mazara, Val di Noto and Val Demone, see Amari, op. cit. 1, 465-468. Ac- 
cording to Edrisi, the harbours on the northern coast of Val Demone were, 
beginning from the West, Caronia on the confines of the province, Oliveri 
and Milazzo, while between the first two was the spiaggia di S. Marco , where 
we are told that ships used to be constructed. During the ninety years which 
elapsed between 1063 and the compilation of Edrisi no new harbours were 
made and, probably, none were destroyed. It therefore seems tolerably 
certain that we may identify the Portus vallis Deminae with one of the four 
above named. Compare Arnari, op. cit. in, 102 n., and as to Edrisi, pp. 
453 se Q- an d 669 seq. 

2 We get the date from Marangone, ubi cit.: "Pisani fuerunt Panormiam: 
gratia Dei vicerunt illos in die sancti Agapiti." 



PLATE III 




PLATE IV 




INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL 



1063] PALERMO AND MEHDIA 29 

degli Schiavoni, was the harbour of commerce, that to the east, 
in the Khalesa, the arsenal 1 . 

The Pisans found the mouth of the harbour closed with a 
great chain 2 , but drove the prows of their ships against it and 
broke it, after which they rowed into the western basin, and, 
in full view of all the captains and mariners of Palermo, cut 
out six great ships laden with merchandise. Though the Quar- 
tiere degli Schiavoni was unwalled, it does not appear that they 
made any attempt to land, being content to withdraw with the 
prizes they had captured, five of which they subsequently 
burned, after removing the cargoes to their own holds. We next 
hear of them at the mouth of the Oreto, where, after repulsing 
a sortie from the city, they pitched their tents among the sub- 
urban pleasances and wasted all the country round with fire 
and sword. Lastly, they returned to their homes in triumph, 
there to devote a large part of the spoil which they had taken 
to the building of a new and splendid Cathedral in honour of 
Our Lady. "Constructa est Ecclesia beatae Virginis Pisanae 
civitatis," writes Marangone; and, indeed, our best and most 
detailed authority for the expedition itself is to be found in the 
contemporary inscription which may still be seen built into the 
facade between the first and the second doors 3 . 

The Pisans seem to have taken no further interest in the con- 
quest of Sicily, but their attack upon Palermo proves that they 
had now definitely turned the tables on the Saracens, and were 
able to repay in kind the insults and outrages to which they had 

1 See Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, n, 68, 296 seq.; m, 1 18-120 et passim, 
and compare the article "Palermo" in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (edition 
cited), xviii, 169. 

2 This was the usual way of closing a harbour. Some interesting details 
will be found in Hodgson, Venice in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries 
(London, Geo. Allen and Sons, 1910), p. 122. See also Heyd, Histoire du 
Commerce du Levant (Leipzig, 1885), vol. 1, p. 345 n. 3, there cited. 

3 Amari, op. cit. in, 102, 103, and authorities there cited. See also Man- 
I froni, op. cit. pp. 98, 113, 114. The inscription referred to has been often 
! published, e.g. in Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 5, 6, and in Morrona, Pisa illustrata 
t nelle arti del disegno (2d edizione), T. I, pp. 157, 158. The later chroniclers 
; indulge in the usual exaggerations. Thus for instance Ranieri Sardo (Arch. 

Stor. It. T. vi, P. 11, p. 77) asserts that "li Pisani passonno in Cicilia...e per 
forsa preseno Palermo." 



3 o THE EXPEDITIONS AGAINST [ch. hi 

so long been subjected. It is, moreover, tolerably clear that, 
at this time, Genoa was still weaker than her rival. Her name 
appears more rarely in the history of the maritime exploits of 
the period, and generally as the ally and auxiliary of Pisa. 
Neither is it improbable that her comparative weakness tempted 
the Pisans to a too arrogant exercise of their thalassocracy to 
the detriment of Genoese interests, and especially in Sardinia 1 . 
In 1066 hostilities broke out between the sea-faring population 
of the two cities and continued intermittently for almost twenty 
years. According to Marangone (the Pisan chroniclers are once 
more our only authority) the Genoese were the aggressors and 
presented themselves at the mouth of the Arno cum stolo 2 . 
Roncioni speaks of two separate raids — one, apparently, in 1066 
and another in 1070 — a bloody battle, a Pisan victory and the 
capture of seven galleys 3 ; but who can believe him ? Next, we 
read of a Pisan expedition, in 1072, which was dispersed by a 
tempest off Portofino ; " et fuerunt in gravi periculo, iudicio Dei, 
non hominis," says Marangone. In 1077 a Genoese attack on 
Vada was repaid with interest by the burning of Rapallo and 
the carrying into captivity of such of the inhabitants as were not 
put to the sword 4 . In the following year a Genoese fleet once 
more appeared at the mouth of the Arno, only to seek shelter 
in Porto Venere as soon as the Pisans made ready to attack it. 
"Ianuensis stolus usque ad fauces Ami occulte devenit. Tunc 
strenui Pisani concite in eos surrexerunt, et fugaverunt illos 
usque ad Venerem Portum." In spite of the assertions of Tronci 
and Roncioni, it is doubtful if, throughout the whole of this war, 
there was a single naval battle, properly so called. The ships 
which in the aggregate made up the stolus of either city were 
the property of private individuals ; the Communes of Pisa and 

1 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 99. 2 Arch. Stor. It. T. vi, P. 11, p. 6. 

3 Arch. Stor. It. T. vi, P. I,, p. 118 seq. 

4 The account given by Marangone (ubi cit.) is as follows: "mlxxvii. 
Ianuensis populus per latrocinium ad Vadense castrum devenit, et tunc 
Pisani ad Rapallum viriliter perrexerunt, et castrum igni succenderunt, et 
plurimos eorum gladio interfecerunt ; viros ac mulieres, manibus post ter- 
gum ligatis, captivos tripudianter perduxerunt. Tunc Pisani hoc triumpho 
revertentibus Ianuensibus oblitati sunt et pene, et usque domos eorum 
fortiter illos infugaverunt. Hoc fuit tertio idus Madii." 



1063-80] PALERMO AND MEHDIA 31 

Genoa were still rudimentary, and neither Pisa nor Genoa as 
political entities took part in the conflict. The belligerents were 
the merchant adventurers of the two cities, and the war which 
they fought was a war of reprisals, of raids and counter- raids, 
intermittent and indecisive. In the end it is said that Pope 
s Victor III intervened to make peace between them, and, a few 
months later, we once more find them allied against the com- 
mon enemy. 

In the introduction to his Diplomi Arabi 1 , Amari maintains 
that, between 1070 and 1080, the dynasty of the Zirites con- 
cluded a series of commercial treaties or conventions with the 
maritime cities of Italy; and, although no documentary evi- 
dence of this fact has come down to us, it is unquestionable 
that, in the second half of the eleventh century, the merchants 
of Genoa and Pisa visited the ports not only of Africa proper 
but also of Maghreb 2 . A great tolerance, founded upon re- 
ciprocal commercial interests, seems to have existed between 
Christians and Arabs; and certainly, where the paramount 
question of international trade was concerned, mere religious 
differences can have had little or no weight. Witness the bitter 
indignation of Matilda's monkish chronicler, when he saw the city 
which contained the bones of the Countess Beatrice thronged 
with unbelievers from all the shores of the Mediterranean : 

...Dolor heic me funditus urit, 

Quum tenet Urbs illam, qua non est tarn bene digna. 

Qui pergit Pisas, videt illic monstra marina. 

Haec Urbs Paganis, Turchis, Libyeis quoque, Parthis, 

Sordida, Chaldcei sua lustrant littora tetri 3 . 

Yet, after all, their seeming amity was, in fact, little better than 
an armed truce; Christians and Mussulmans alike stood ready 
to draw the sword on the smallest provocation, and of provo- 

1 i" Diplomi Arabi del R. Archivio Fiorentino. Testo originate con la tra- 
duzione letterale e illustrazioni di Michele Amari (Firenze, Le Monnier, 
1863), Introduzione storica. 

2 The "Ifrikia" or Africa of the Arabs extended from the great Acaba, 
which rises between Barca and Alexandria, to Bugia. The territory from 
Bugia to the Atlantic received the name of Maghreb or "West." See Amari, 
Storia dei Musulmani, op. cit. I, 122. 

8 Muratori, Rer. Italic. Script, v. 364; Annali d* Italia, ad ann. 1076. 



32 THE EXPEDITIONS AGAINST [ch. hi 

cation there can have been no lack. The vengeance of Othello 
on the Turk of Aleppo was probably typical. 

Moreover, the merchants of those days, though primarily 
traders, were also pirates and slave- dealers, lawless and vio- 
lent men who shrank from nothing which would bring them 
gain of money. In 1063 a ship of Gaeta, though laden with 
relics and carrying a company of Benedictine monks from 
Montecassino who had been sent for by Barisone of Logudoro 
to found a monastery in Sardinia, was seized by Pisan corsairs 
off the island of Giglio. The ship was burned, the spoil divided, 
and such of the monks as were not killed were put ashore with 
nothing but the clothes that they stood up in 1 . No doubt this 
outrage may have been due in part to political motives. Leo of 
Ostia speaks of the Pisans as " maxima Sardorum invidia ducti " ; 
but it is sufficiently obvious that men who could thus treat 
their fellow-Christians and more especially the Religious, were 
unlikely to feel any scruples about despoiling the infidel. Com- 
mercial treaties might be useful so long as the merchantman 
lay at anchor beside the wharves of Sfax or Mehdia, but, once 
out of sight of land, there were other ways of getting a cargo 
than by buying it: dead men tell no tales, and the methods of 
Chaucer's shipman were as old as sea-faring itself 2 . To be a 
roving corsair on the deep water was well nigh as respectable 
a vocation as that of a knight-errant on land, and belated craft, 
whether Christian or Saracen, were exposed to other and greater 
perils than those of the elements. In the eleventh century as in 
the sixteenth, piracy was an inseparable incident of Mediter- 
ranean life, and the normal depredations of individual adven- 
turers were no more regarded as acts of war entailing the rup- 
ture of a peace than were the cattle-lifting raids on the Anglo- 

1 Leonis Marsicani et Petri Diaconi Chronicon Monasterii Casinensis, in 
M.G.H. vii, 713-715. See also Besta, op. cit. 1, 76, 77. 

2 The Canterbury Tales, The Prologue, w. 398-400: 

Of nyc£ conscience took he no keepe. 

If that he faught, and hadde the hyer hond ; 

By water he sente hem hoom to every lond. 

Compare Franco Sacchetti, Nov. 254. 



1087] PALERMO AND MEHDIA 33 

Scottish frontier 1 . The matter, however, assumed another aspect 
when Temim converted his strong capital of Mehdia into a 
veritable nest of pirates and systematically harried the coasts 
of southern Europe. 

Hie cum suis Saracenis 

Devastabat Galliam, 
Captivabat omnes gentes 

Que tenent Ispaniam; 
Et in tota ripa maris 

Turbabat Italiam, 
Predabatur Romaniam 

Usque Alexandriam. 

Non est locus toto mundo, 

Neque maris insula, 
Quam Timinus non turbaret 

Orrenda perfidia; 
Rodus, Ciprus, Creta 

Simul et Sardinia 
Vexabatur, et cum illis 

Nobilis Sicilia. 

Situated upon a peninsula between the gulfs of Hammamet and 
Gabes, and fortified with walls and towers 2 , Mehdia became an 
object of terror and detestation to all the Western peoples, who 
knew that it contained thousands of Christian captives groaning 
in harshest servitude. 

Sita pulcro loco maris 

Civitas hec impia, 
Que captivos continebat 

Plus centena milia. 

Hinc captivi Redemptorem 

Clamabant altissime, 
Et per orbem universum 

Flebant amarissime; 

1 E. J. Kitts, In the days of the Councils (London, 1908), p. 143 ; E. Arm- 
strong, The Emperor Charles V (London, 1902), 11, 238. 

2 As to the fortifications of Mehdia see Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, 11, 
139, 140, 364; in, 80. 



34 THE EXPEDITIONS AGAINST [ch. hi 

Reclamabant ad Pisanos 

Planctu miserabili; 
Concitabant Genuenses 

Fletu lacrimabili. 

So sings the Pisan poet 1 ; but neither Pisa nor Genoa were at 
all likely to be induced by motives of mere altruism to attack 
what was, perhaps, the most formidable military harbour in all 
the Mediterranean 2 , and the tears of the prisoners probably 
had but little effect. On the other hand, the fact that Temim 
was interfering with their trade and rendering all the water- 
ways insecure was a very serious matter, and the more so that, 
at this time, they had, perhaps, begun to cast their eyes towards 
the Orient 3 . So long as Sicily remained in Mussulman hands, 
voyages to the Levant were probably rare and iso ated 4 ; but the 
Norman conquests opened the Straits of Messina to Christian 
merchantmen, and the day had now arrived when a great pirate 
sea-port of the north coast of Africa could no longer be tole- 
rated 5 . It was resolved to abate it as a common nuisance. 
For this expedition, which seems to have taken place in the 

1 Carmen in victoria Pisanorum, Genuensium aliorumque Italiensium de 
Timino Saracenorum rege, ducibus Benedicto, Petro, Sismundo, Lamberto, 
Glandulpho, de expugnatione urbium Sibilia et Madia die S. Xisti, in Atti 
delta Societd Ligure di Storia Patria, iv, ccxvi et seq. It has been published 
repeatedly; but this is the most recent edition. 

2 See A. Main, / Pisani alle prime Grociate (Livorno, Meucci, 1893), 
p. 7, and Carmen in victoria Pisanorum, ubi cit. p. ccxvii, n. 1. Up to the 
sixteenth century, when it became the headquarters of the Moslem pirate 
Dragut-Reis, Mehdia continued to be by far the strongest city on the littoral 
of Northern Africa. See E. Hamilton Currey, Sea Wolves of the Mediter- 
ranean, chaps, xv, xvi. 

3 Thus we have record of a fleet of Genoese merchantmen (stolus navium 
Januensium) which touched at Jaffa in 105 1, and brought the English Ingulf, 
Abbot of Croyland, back to Europe after a pilgrimage (Ingulfi Croylandensis 
Historia in Rerum Anglicarum Scriptorum Veterum 1, 74). In 1094 or 1095 
Godfrey of Bouillon is said to have sailed to Alexandria in a Genoese ship 
"que Pomella vocabatur " (Caffaro, De Liberatione civitatum Orientis Liber, 
edition Belgrano, p. 99). Of Pisan commerce with the East we have, as yet, 
no direct evidence. See, however, Heyd, Histoire dn Commerce du Levant 
(Leipzig, 1885), 1, 124. 

4 Hodgson, The Early History of Venice, op. cit. p. 237; Manfroni, op. cit. 
p. 138. 

5 Compare Villari, U Italia da Carlo Magno alia morte di Arrigo VII, 
(Milano, Hoepli, 1910), p. 261. 



1087] PALERMO AND MEHDIA 35 

summer of 1087, the authorities are sufficiently numerous. It is 
mentioned by Malaterra in his Historia Simla 1 , and by Deacon 
Peter, in the chronicle of Montecassino 2 ; there is a brief ac- 
count of it — the original nucleus around which all the inven- 
tions and amplifications of the later Pisan writers have accumu- 
lated — in Marangone 3 ; and a large number of scattered notices 
from Arab chronicles have been collected by Amari in his 
Biblioteca Arabo-Sicula. Finally, in the Carmen in victoria 
Pisanorum* we have a contemporary or almost contemporary 
narrative which is evidently of Pisan authorship and probably 
bears much the same relation to the actual facts as does the 
ballad of " Chevy Chase" to the Battle of Otterburn. Yet, even 
as "Chevy Chase" brings home to us the spirit of the border 
forays, "the daring and defiance which stirred Sidney's heart 
Mike a trumpet/" so the Carmen in victoria Pisanorum, far 
more than all the prose chronicles, enables us to understand 
the spirit which inspired the Pisan armatori in those devil-may- 
care days, when a handful of private adventurers was ready to 
make war upon a nation. 

The Normans refused their aid 5 , and, beyond giving his ap- 
proval and blessing to the Italian merchants who took part in 
the enterprise, the Pope can have had little or nothing to do 
with it 6 . The story of a papal squadron under Pietro Colonna 
seems to be altogether fabulous 7 . The organizers and leaders of 

1 Ubi cit. lib. iv, c. in. 

2 Chronicon Mon. Cassinensis auctore Petro in M.G.H. vn, 751. 

3 Arch. Stor. It. T. vi, P. 11, p. 6. 

4 See p. 34 supra, n. 1. 

5 According to Malaterra (ubi cit. lib. iv, c. in, pp. 590, 591), while Roger 
Guiscard was besieging Syracuse, the Pisans, in revenge for some injury, 
attacked and occupied the capital of Temim, but were unable to take the 
citadel. They thereupon offered their conquest to Roger, who refused it, in 
order to keep faith with Temim with whom he was negotiating a treaty. As 
a matter of fact, the Pisans did not capture Mehdia till 1087, and, therefore, 
if they did request assistance from the Normans in 1086, it was assistance in 
attacking Mehdia itself. See Amari, Prime imprese, etc., ubi cit. p. 56. 

6 Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, ill, 169; Prime imprese, ubi cit. p. 57. 
Pope Victor III died in September, 1087, and the last few months of his 
life were far too fully occupied at home to leave him time or inclination to 
take part in distant expeditions against the Saracens. 

7 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 100, citing Guglielmotti, Storia delta marina ponti- 
ficia, 1, 213-234. 

3—2 



36 THE EXPEDITIONS AGAINST [ch. in 

the expedition were the Pisans, and to them the Pisan poet 
attributes all the glory of its successful issue : 
Inclitorum Pisanorum 

Scripturus historiam, 
Antiquorum Romanorum 

Renovo memoriam ; 
Nam extendit modo Pisa 
Laudem admirabilem, 
Quam olim recepit Roma 
Vincendo Cartaginem. 
With them were the Genoese, and, apparently, a small con- 
tingent from Amalfi : 

Et refulsit inter istos 

Cum parte exercitus 
Pantaleo malfitanus 1 , 
Inter Grecos 2 Sipantus. 

In the Arab sources we read of Pisans, Genoese "and all the 
other Rum." It would seem, however, that the Pisans alone 
outnumbered the rest of the allies 3 . 

The Arab writers tell us that the preparations continued for 
four years and that the fleet consisted of three or four hundred 
sail ; the Pisan poet asserts that a thousand ships were equipped 
in six months : 

Et componunt mille naves 

Solis tribus mensibus, 
Quibus bene preparatus 
Stolus lucet inclitus. 

The other sources are silent, and from cyphers so discordant it 
is impossible to arrive at any definite conclusion 4 . Still, when 

1 Heyd (op. cit. I, 100-108) mentions a Panteleon, an Amaifitan mer- 
chant, who lived in great magnificence at Constantinople and bore the 
Byzantine titles of Patrician and Consul. Cf. Hodgson, The Early History 
of Venice, op. cit. p. 235. 

2 "To wit Apulians and Calabrians," according to Belgrano, Carmen, 
p. ccxx, n. 1. 

3 Main, J Pisani alle Prime Crociate, op. cit. p. 9. 

4 I need hardly remind the reader that "historians who have been accus- 
tomed to examine their materials critically have usually learned that no 
statements must be received with so much caution as those which relate to 
numbers." I do not myself believe that even the lower Arab estimate can 
be accepted as free from exaggeration. Here, as in the case of the Balearic 
expedition, vain-glory on the one side and terror on the other magnified the 
size of the Christian armadas. 



1087] PALERMO AND MEHDIA 37 

we remember the growing power and importance of the mari- 
time cities and the fact that, now for the first time, all the 
Italian mariners of the Tyrrhenian Sea were leagued together 
for a common end, we may safely conjecture that, whatever 
the precise number of those who took part in it, the expedition 
was on a far larger scale than any which had preceded it; while, 
as directed against the infidels and sanctified by Papal bene- 
diction, it assumed, in retrospect at any rate, all the character 
of a holy war : 

Nos conduxit Jhesus Christus 

Quern necabat Africa, 
Et constrinxit omnis ventus 

Preter solum Japiga ; 
Cherubin emittit ilium 

Cum aperit hostia, 

Qui custodit Paradisum 

Discreta custodia. 

Pantellaria was the mustering place: a fertile island with con- 
venient harbours, standing, like the pier of a gigantic bridge, 
between Sicily and Africa 1 , strongly fortified and garrisoned 
by a large body of Mussulmans : 

Hie est castrum ex natura 

Et arte mirabile, 
Nulli umquam in hoc mundo 

Castrum comparabile; 
Duo milia virorum 

Hoc tenebant oppidum, 

Qui nee Deum verebantur 

Nee virtutem hominum. 

Siege castles were constructed, and the place was taken by 
storm : 

Accesserunt hue e contra 

Mirandi artifices, 
Et de lignis nimis altis 
Facti sunt turrinces 2 ; 

1 Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, I, 165: " Pantellaria... situata come pila 
d' un ponte che dovesse congiungere la Sicilia e V AfTrica, a sessanta miglia 
dalla prima e quaranta dalla seconda." 

2 As to these siege towers compare Archer and Kingsford, The Crusades 
("The Story of the Nations" Series, 1899), pp. 352, 353. 



38 THE EXPEDITIONS AGAINST [ch. hi 

Destruxerunt, occiderunt 

Sicut Deus voluit, 
Et fecerunt quod a mundo 

Numquam credi potuit. 

Apparently, however, the defenders found time to warn Mehdia 
of its danger : 

palumbos 
Emittunt cum litteris. 

writes the poet, and again, 

Alios mandant palumbos, 
Qui factum edisserant. 

Temim was absent from the city with the flower of his army, 
engaged in repelling a Bedouin incursion 1 , and his lieutenant 
proved unequal to the occasion. Unprepared, pusillanimous 
and discordant, the Saracens were still quarrelling with one 
another when the Italians anchored in the roadstead of Mehdia 
on the day of S. Sisto (6 August, 1087). 

Inter hec regalis stolus 

Discedit et navigat, 
Et jam videt illas urbes 

Quas Timinus habitat, 
Mare, terra, muri pleni 

Paganis teterrimis, 
Quos conduxerat Superbus 

Ab extremis terminis. 

In the verses of an Arab poet, who was probably an eye-witness, 
we have a vivid picture of the terror caused by the appearance 
of the Christian armada : 

They assailed our city in such numbers that they seemed 
clouds of lucusts or swarms of maggots. 

1 Main, I Pisani alle Prime Crociate, op. cit. p. 10. When, about 1050, 
Moezz transferred his allegiance to the Abbasid Caliphs, the Fatimites let 
loose upon Africa a vast horde of Bedouins from Egypt, the ancestors of 
the modern nomads of Barbary. Though unable to conquer the towns, they 
continually ravaged the open country. In the words of Amari (op. cit. ill, 
80), "la dinastia Zirita, soprafatta dagli Arabi d' oltre Nilo, avea perduta la 
terra, non il mare." Compare the Encyclopaedia Britannica (edition cited), 
xxm, 619, 620, Article "Tunis." 



1087] PALERMO AND MEHDIA 39 

Twenty thousand and half as many more gathered on 

every side. Ah me, the fierce muster ! 
Suddenly they swooped upon a handful of men, unskilled 

in arms and ignorant of war, 
Accustomed to all the comforts of life and unused to 

stand continually upon guard. 
Wherefore, awakening out of sleep, fierce eyes and keen 

brands met their sight ; 
Upon galleys that looked like mountains save only that 

their summits bristled with spears and swords, 
Gently the breezes wafted them whither they would go. 

Alas s for us it was a tempest ! 
When the wind had fallen, their oars propelled them, so 

that they came upon us like serpents 1 . 

The Saracens endeavoured to treat with the invaders, offering 
to liberate their Christian captives but in vain. 

Jam armati petunt terram 

Cum parvis naviculis, 
Et temptabant maris fundum 

Cum astis longissimis ; 
Se demergunt ut leones 

Postquam terram sentiunt, 
Aquilis velociores, 

Super hostes irruunt. 

They landed in the unwalled suburb of Zawila (Sibilia) to the 
southward, and in the peninsula of Mehdia itself to the north- 
ward 2 , occupying all the city except the fortified palace or 
cassarum, butchering men, women and children, robbing, burn- 
ing and destroying: 

Occiduntur et truncantur 
Omnes quasi pecudes, 

1 I translate from the Italian of Amari, Prime imprese, etc., ubi cit. pp. 
62, 63. See also Biblioteca Arabo-Sicula (Torino e Roma, E. Loescher, 1881), 

n, 39i- 

2 So Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, in, 170, and Diplomi Arabi, Introd. 
p. xix. Marangone {ubi cit. p. 6) tells us that the Pisans and Genoese " cepe- 
runt duas munitissimas civitates Almadiam et Sibiliam." Shaw identifies 
Sibilia with the ancient Turris Annibalis, some two leagues to the south of 
Mehdia on the same coast (see Michaud, History of the Crusades, English 
translation, London, 1852, 1, 40 and note). There can, however, be but little 
doubt that Amari is right. He is followed by Manfroni (op. cit. p. 101), who 
asserts that the Christians "sbarcarono a viva forza nel sobborgo di Zavila." 



4 o THE EXPEDITIONS AGAINST [ch. hi 

Non est illis fortitudo 

Qua possint resistere; 
Perimuntur in momento 

Paganorum milia, 
Antequam intrarent portas 

Et tenerent menia. 

Postquam desuper et subter 

Intrarunt fortissime, 
Pervagantur totam urbem 

Absque ulla requie, 
Occiduntur mulieres 

Virgines et vidue, 
Et infantes alliduntur 

Ut non possint vivere. 

Non est domus neque via, 

In tota Sibilia 
Que non esset rubicunda 

Et sanguine livida ; 
Tot Saracenorum erant 

Cadavera misera, 
Quae exalant jam fetorem 

Per centena milia 1 . 

Temim, as soon as he learned what had happened, hastened to 
the defence of his capital, but arrived too late to turn the tide 
of war, and was compelled to take refuge in his fortified palace, 
whence he looked on helplessly at the sacking of the city 2 . The 
mosques were desecrated and the priests beheaded; even the 
mules and horses in the royal stables were slaughtered by the 

1 Marangone, ubi cit.: "...Saracenis fere omnibus interfectis." Chronicon 
Mon. CassinenstSy uhi cit. cap. lxxi: "...interfectis de Saracenorum exercitu 
centum milibus pugnatorum." 

2 In his despair, he ordered, as a last resource, that his lions should be 
turned loose ; but the lions only ate the Saracens : 

Jussit portas aperire 

Et leones solvere, 
Ut turbarent Christianos 

Pugnantes improvide: 
Set conversi sunt leones 

Ad honorem glorie, 
Nam vorarunt Saracenos 

In laude victorie. 



1087] PALERMO AND MEHDIA 41 

victors ; the arsenal was ruined and the ships towed out of the 
harbour and burnt upon the shore : 

Alii petunt meschitam 

Pretiosam scemate, 
Mille truncant sacerdotes 

Qui erant Machumate; 
Qui fuit heresiarcha 

Potentior Arrio, 
Cujus error jam permansit 

Longo mundi spatio. 

Alii confundunt portum 

Factum mirabiliter, 
Darsanas 1 et omnes turres 

Perfundunt similiter ; 
Mille naves trahunt inde 

Que cremantur litore; 
Quarum incendium Troje 

Fuit vere simile. 

Alii irrumpunt castrum, 

Atque turres diruunt, 
Equos regios et mulas 

Omnes interficiunt ; 
Aurea vexilla mille 

Trahunt et argentea, 
Que in Pisa gloriosa 

Sunt triumphi premia. 

The cassarum, however, proved impregnable: 

Super hunc procere turres 

Ad nubes altissime, 
Ubi vix mortalis homo 

Jam possit aspicere, 
Scale facte circumflexe 

Faciles contendere, 
Ubi nullus neque valet 

Neque scit ascendere. 

1 Darsana (from the Arabic ddrganah = house of industry) is the deriva- 
tive, through the Italian, of our " arsenal." In Dante's day it had already 
lost its initial letter and become arzand or arsend. See Inferno, XXI, 7, and 
compare Hodgson, The Early History of Venice, op. cit. p. 251. 



42 THE EXPEDITIONS AGAINST [ch. hi 

And, either there or at the storming of Mehdia itself, Ugo 
Visconte — Ugo Vicecomes filins Ugonis Vicecomitis 1 — was slain in 
a rally of the Saracens, after performing incredible prodigies of 
valour. Our poet dedicates seventy verses of bitter lamentation 
to his untimely end : 

Hie evenit tibi, Pisa, 

Magnum infortunium, 
Nam hie perdis capud urbis 

Et coronam juvenum. 
Cadit Ugo Vicecomes 

Omnium pulcherrimus, 
Dolor magnus Pisanorum 

Et planctus miserrimus. 

The body was embalmed and carried to Pisa for burial. 

Finally, Temim capitulated, undertaking to liberate all 
Christian captives, to concede trading privileges to the Pisans 
and Genoese, and to pay a huge indemnity: 

1 Donat auri et argenti 

Infinitum pretium, 
Ditat populum Pisanum 
Atque Genuensium 2 . 

Juravit per Deum celi, 

Suas legens litteras, 
Jam ammodo christianis 

Non ponet insidias, 
Et non toilet teloneum 3 

His utrisque populis, 
Serviturus in eternum 

Eis quasi dominis. 

Having thus achieved their object, the allies accepted the terms 
which were offered them, loaded their galleys with gold and 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. Compare p. io supra. 

2 The precise amount is doubtful, being stated by different Arab writers 
at from 30,000 to 100,000 dinar of gold. Amari {Prime imprese, ubi cit. p. 57) 
thinks the larger sum the more probable, in view of the diminished value of 
precious metals in Africa in the eleventh century. Cf. Storia dei Musulmani, 
11, 362. 

3 " Teloneum seems to be the generic word for all taxes levied on goods 
imported by sea." Hodgson, op. cit. p. 100 n. 



1087] PALERMO AND MEHDIA 43 

silver, with liberated Christians and Moslem prisoners and re- 
turned each of them to his own city. 

Captivorum persolverunt 

Plus ad centum milia, 
Quos recepit Romania 

Jam ex longa misera ; 
Saracenos et captivos 

Ducunt sine numero ; 
Qui est totum tuum donum, 

Jhesu, sine dubio. 

Of the treasure they had gained the Pisans dedicated a great 
part to the service of the Queen of Heaven, whose Cathedral 
they adorned with new magnificence : 

Sed tibi, Regina celi, 

Stella maris inclita, 
Donant cuncta pretiosa 

Et cuncta eximia; 
Unde tua in eternum 

Splendebit ecclesia 
Auro, gemmis et margaritis, 

Et palliis splendida. 

In gratitude to the Saint on whose festival they had won their 
victory, they erected the church of S. Sisto in Cortevecchia 1 . 

The overthrow of Temim not only put an end to Arab piracy 
in the Mediterranean but so crippled the maritime power of 
the Saracens that from thenceforward the control of the sea 
passed to the trading communities of Italy. Yet, in after years, 
economic causes were forgotten and men learned to regard the 
expedition of Mehdia not only as preparatory to the Crusades 
but as in itself a Crusade, and the credit of it was naturally 
attributed to the Holy See. Even the Pisan poet speaks of a 
Papal Legate, Benedictus, 

illuminatus 
Luce Sancti Spiritus, 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. : "...magnam predam auri, argenti, paJliorum et aera- 
mentorum abstraxerunt. De qua preda thesauros Pisanae Ecclesiae in diversis 
ornamentis mirabiliter amplificaverunt, et Ecclesiam beati Sixti in Curte 
Veteri aedificaverunt." 



44 EXPEDITIONS— PALERMO AND MEHDIA [ch. hi 

who, cross in hand, incited the Christian warriors to scale the 
walls of the new Jericho. We are further told that Temim agreed 
to hold his dominions as a fief of the Church : 

Terrain jurat Sancti Petri 

Esse sine dubio, 
Et ab eo tenet earn 

Jam absque colludio. 

It has been said that, in the Middle Ages, "religion, politics 
and commerce were so closely intertwined that it is almost im- 
possible to disentangle them 1 ." 

Before the Crusades began, the Pisans and Genoese took part 
in another joint expedition, for the expulsion of Roderigo 
Ximines, the Cid, from Valencia. They were leagued with 
Alphonso VI of Castile ; and a fleet of four hundred ships was 
collected. Unfortunately, the Pisans and Genoese quarrelled, 
and the former abandoned the enterprise and returned to their 
homes. Thereupon, the latter, too weak to have any hope of 
capturing Valencia, attempted to surprise Tortosa, but were 
repulsed by the infidels. This was in 1092. No Italian writer 
except Caffaro has left us any notice of the expedition, and he 
only just mentions it 2 . Our authorities are the chroniclers 
quoted by Amari in his Diplomi Arabi 3 . 

1 J. W. Welsford, The Strength of Nations (London, 1907), p. 31. 

2 Annali Genovesi (edition Belgrano), p. 13 : "in primo exercitu Tortuose." 

3 Diplomi Arabi, op. cit. Introd. pp. xix, xx. 



CHAPTER THE FOURTH 

THE FIRST CRUSADE 

.During a great part of the eleventh century, Bari, and in a 
lesser degree Trani, Brindisi and Taranto, had traded with the 
East ; while so long as Amalfl remained nominally subject to the 
Greek Emperors, she enjoyed special advantages which enabled 
her to compete successfully with all her rivals. Only after her 
submission to Robert Guiscard, in 1073, was she forced to yield 
the premier place to Venice, which for the next two decades 
possessed what was practically a monopoly of the Levant trade 1 . 
Scarcely, however, had the supremacy of Venice been estab- 
lished than it was challenged by Genoa and Pisa. Having swept 
the infidel from the Western Mediterranean, they were ready 
for fresh enterprises, and the preaching of the First Crusade 
pointed to the East. 

At this time Pisa stood high in the favour of the Holy See. 
In 109 1, at the prayer of the well-beloved daughter of St Peter, 
the Countess Matilda, of Bishop Daibert and of the Pisan 
nobles, Urban II leased the island of Corsica to the Pisan 
Church for an annual rent of fifty pounds of Lucchese money, 
payable at the Lateran Palace 2 . In the following year the dio- 
cese of Pisa was erected into an Archbishopric with jurisdiction 
over the prelates of Corsica 3 . In his bull Urban belauds the 
devotion of the citizens to the Apostolic See, quoting the words 
of the prophet: Honorificantes me honorificabo*, and speaks of 
the City of Pisa as exalted above its neighbours (prae compro- 
vincialibus) by its victories over the Saracens. The newly created 

1 Hodgson, The Early History of Venice, pp. 234, 235. See also Manfroni, 
op. cit. pp. 82-84. 

2 Dal Borgo, Dipl. pis. p. 270; Bonaini, Dipl. pis. No. v, p. 2. 

3 Dal Borgo, Dipl. pis. pp. 198-200; Bonaini, Dipl. pis. No. vi, pp. 2-3. 

4 1 Samuel, ii, 30. 



46 THE FIRST CRUSADE [ch. iv 

Archbishop was present at the Council of Clermont, where to 
the cry of " God wills it!" the first Crusade was proclaimed by 
Urban (1095). On his return to his diocese, Daibert exhorted 
his fellow-citizens to take up arms for the delivery of the Holy 
Sepulchre, and finally captained their fleets himself: "Quorum 
rector et ductor Daibertus Pisanae urbis archiepiscopus ex- 
titit 1 ." 

Like the rest of Christendom, th*e Pisans no doubt believed 
in the necessary existence of a conterminous world-empire and 
world-religion 2 , and were moved to poignant grief by "the 
shame of Jesus Christ 3 "; but there was no lack of secular 
reasons for their devotion. With the innate shrewdness of traders 
they perceived what profits must accrue to those who were 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 7. 

2 E.J. Kitts, In the Days of the Councils, op. cit. p. 6: "It was this belief 
in the necessary existence of a conterminous world-empire and world- 
religion which made the earlier Crusades so popular and universal: it was 
its decadence which rendered the later crusades so petty and abortive." 

3 Hodgson, op. cit. p. 355. Compare the "Crusading Song" of Guiraut 
de Bornelh in A. Kolsen, Samtliche Lieder des Trobadors Giraut de Bornelh 
(Halle, a. S. 1910), No. 60, p. 384, w. 2 and 3 : 

E consir me meravilhan 
com s' es lo segles endormitz, 
e com be'n secha la raitz, 
el mals s' abriv' e vai poian ; 
qu' er' a penas prez' om ni blan 
si Deus es antatz ni laiditz 

c' als Arabitz 

trafas ses lei 
rema Suri' en patz 
e sai tenson entr' els las poestatz. 

E pero ges no m'es semblan 
c' om valens d' armas ni arditz, 
pos a tal coch'er Deu falhitz, 
ja ses vergonhalh torn denan: 
mas eel c'aura pretz de so bran 
de grans colps e dels seus feritz 

er acolhitz 

si de so rei 
que-s tenra per paiatz 
qu'el non es ges de donar issaratz. 

On the subject generally see Villari, U Italia da Carlo Magno alia morte di 
Arrigo VII, op. cit. p. 238, and H. O. Taylor, The Mediaeval Mind, 1, 535 et 
seq. 



i°73^99] THE FIRST CRUSADE 47 

ready to take advantage of that tremendous emigration of 
Europe to the shores of Palestine. The mariner, the soldier, 
the constructor of siege-machinery, the merchant of timber 
and of victuals, could find no surer and swifter gain than in 
aiding the armies of the Cross; while, possibly, to a few acuter 
minds the idea may have already occurred of recalling the trade 
of Asia to its ancient and natural outlets — Antioch, Tyre, Sidon, 
Beyrout, Acre, Laodicea — whence it had been diverted towards 
the Bosphorus by the Moslem conquests, to the manifest ad- 
vantage of Amalfi and Venice 1 . If, at one and the same time, 
a man may save his soul and fill his pockets, what need he ask 
for more ? In the maritime republics the crusading spirit was 
metamorphosed to commercial enterprise. 

According to Tronci the Pisans were present at the siege of 
Nicaea, in the spring of 1097 2 ; and Archbishop Baldericus as- 
serts that, during the march of the Christian army from Antioch 
to Tripoli, "Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese, and the inhabiters 
of the shores of the Ocean and of the Mediterranean, covered 
the sea with ships, laden with arms and men, with siege ma- 
chinery and provisions 3 ." Finally, the Pisan chroniclers attri- 
bute the capture of Jerusalem itself to the valour of their fellow- 
citizens: "cujus victoriae Pisanus populus fuit et caput et 
causa 4 ." The boast is, however, an empty one 5 . The great Pisan 
armada under the leadership of Daibert only reached Laodicea 
in the autumn of 1099, some two months after the fall of Jeru- 
salem; and, from this circumstance, "il soccorso di Pisa" has 
become a synonym for assistance so tardily rendered as to be 

1 Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire from 716 to 1057 ("Everyman's 
Library" edition), pp. 195, 196; Manfroni, op. cit. p. 137; C. Imperiale di 
Sant' Angelo, Cajfaro e i suoi tempi (Torino, Roux, 1894), pp. 83, 84. 

2 Tronci, Annali pisani (Livorno, Gio. Vincenzo Bonfigli, 1682), p. 34. 

3 Balderici, Historia Hierosolymita, IV, 18, in Recueil des historiens des 
Croisades: "Veneti quoque et Pisani et Jenuani et qui vel Oceani vel Maris 
mediterranei littus incolebant, navibus onustis armis et hominibus, machinis 
et victualibus mare sulcantes operuerunt." See G. Miiller, Documenti sulle 
relazioni delle Cittd Toscane coll' Oriente Cristiano e coi Turchi fi.no all' anno 
MDXXXI (Firenze, Cellini, 1879), p. 367. 

4 Muratori, Rer. Italic. Script, vi, 160. See also Tronci, Annali pisani, 
p. 35, and Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 144. 

5 Muratori, Annali d' Italia ad ann. 1099; Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 151, 152. 



48 THE FIRST CRUSADE [ch. iv 

well-nigh useless 1 . As late as February, 1098, the Pisans hired 
two great ships to the Volterrani, only stipulating that they 
should be returned within a year, or, in other words, in time to 
take part in the expedition led by Daibert 2 . 

Nevertheless, it is well to remember that the Pisan Commune 
was still in its infancy. The associated families who had created 
it, the aristocracy of the ships and of the towers, had as yet by 
no means abandoned their right to private initiative in many 
fields which would appear to modern ideas to belong exclusively 
to the State. Even on land they still insisted on the right of 
private warfare 3 ; while, at sea, "every little fleet was practically 
an autonomous republic, every ship an independent dominion, 
and every captain a sovereign who made war and peace at his own 
good pleasure 4 ." In these circumstances, it is perfectly possible 
that there were Pisans who took part in the earlier victories of 
the crusaders : private adventurers who came with arms or pro- 
visions or belated recruits. Individual Pisans may even have 
fought at the taking of the Holy City. Cucco Ricucchi may not 
be altogether a myth 5 . The twelve galleys and the sandalo which 
sailed from Genoa in July, 1097, were equipped and manned 
by private citizens 6 , and so too were the Genoese ships which 
arrived at Jaffa in June, 1099, and lent such valuable assistance 
to the Christian army before Jerusalem 7 . The maritime repub- 
lics, as such, were determined to run no needless risks and 

1 See Tronci, Annali pisani rifusi, etc., op. cit. 1, 181 note. 

2 Tronci, Annali pisani (Livorna, 1682), op. cit. p. 35; Maffei, Storia 
Volterrana (Volterra, Tip. Sborgi, 1887), p. 46. 

3 Thus we learn from the Breve Consilium that the Commune was under 
no obligation to indemnify a citizen for the loss of his war-horse if " in sua 
vel amicorum suorum guerra mortuus vel macagnatus fuerit." Bonaini, 
Statuti Pisani, 1, 6. 

4 Volpe, Istituzioni comunali a Pisa, op. cit. p. 125. 

5 A sufficient account of the Pisan legend will be found in The Story of 
Pisa, op. cit. pp. 13, 14, though in Mrs Ross' version the miracle is ignored. 
According to the earlier writers, the words which she puts into the mouth of 
Cucco Ricucchi were spoken by the Crucified Christ: " E mentre egli [Cucco 
Ricucchi] e tutto alia battaglia intento...quel santo Crocifisso volto la faccia 
verso la sua, girandoli 1' asta in mano, e ad alta voce disse: 'Seguitate, O 
cristiani, che avete vinto.'" 

6 Caffaro, Liberatio Orientis (edition Belgrano), p. 102; C. Imperiale di 
S. Angelo, op. cit. p. 85. 

7 Caffaro, ubi cit. p. no and n. 2. 



1099] THE FIRST CRUSADE 49 

awaited the successful issue of the enterprise before associating 
themselves with it. 

The expedition under Daibert consisted of 120 sail, whether 
galleys or ships of transport we do not know 1 , and comprised 
many Italians besides the Pisans 2 . It seems to have sailed round 
the heel of Italy to Apulia, and thence after crossing the Straits 
of Otranto, along the Greek coast to Cape Matapan, never 
venturing out of sight of land. On its way, it is said to have 
sacked the islands of Leucadia and Cephalonia quia Hieroso- 
limitanum iter impedire solebant 2 ; and its first exploit in Syrian 
waters was directed not against the Infidel but against the 
Greek Emperor Alexius Comnenus, whose city of Laodicea 
Bohemond was besieging in defiance of the wishes of the other 
leaders. Ere long, however, Daibert became convinced that 
that war was an unrighteous one, and he prevailed upon his 
followers to abandon it 4 . A little later, we find him journeying 
southward in the company of Bohemond, the two Roberts and 
Raymond of St Gilles, whose discords had been healed by his 
intervention 5 . At Bethlehem they were welcomed by Godfrey 
of Bouillon with his knights and clergy, and to him Daibert 
presented himself in his capacity of Papal Legate— cum auctori- 

1 Marangone, ubi cit,: "Populus Pisanus jussu domini papae Urbani II, 
in navibus cxx ad liberandam Ierusalem de manibus paganorum profectus 
est." Tronci (p. 38) speaks of " 120 Galere e altri legni per condurre li vetto- 
vaglie." Sardo (ubi cit. p. 78) gives no precise number, but merely tells us 
that "li Pisani andonno per mare con grandi navilii." 

2 Balderici, Hist. Hieros. 11, 550; Miiller, Documenti, op. cit. p. 364: 
"Applicuerat in portu Laodicensi archiepiscopus quidam Pisanus nomine 
Daimbertus et cum eo Itali plures atque Tusciani." So too we read, in the 
Gesta Francorum, of " Daimbertus, Pisanus episcopus, multique alii Pisani et 
Ravennenses, qui portui Laodiciae applicuerant." 

3 Marangone, ubi cit.; Manfroni, op. cit. p. 140. 

4 Albertus Aquensis, Histor. Hieros. lib. VI, cap. 55-58, apud Bongars, 
Gesta Dei per Francos, 1. 290, 291. The passage is quoted in extenso by 
Miiller, Documenti, pp. 364, 365. 

5 See the letter written by Daibert, Godfrey of Bouillon and Count 
Raymond of St Gilles to Pope Paschal II, in Dal Borgo, Dipl. pis. pp. 80- 
82: " Comes S. Egidii et Robertus comes Northomanniae et Robertus comes 
Flandriae Laodiciam reversi sunt: ibi classem Pisanorum et Boamundi in- 
venerunt. Cumque Archiepiscopus Pisanus Boamundum et Dominos nostros 
concordare fecisset, regredi Jerusalem pro Deo et fratribus suis Regimundus 
disposuit." Compare Michaud, History of the Crusades, op. cit. in, 362-364, 
App. No. 9. 



50 THE FIRST CRUSADE [ch. iv 

tote Legati a latere. Learned and eloquent 1 and accustomed to 
difficult missions 2 , his influence was enhanced by the almost un- 
limited authority he exercised over the Pisans and Genoese who 
had followed him from Laodicea 3 . Ere long he was chosen 
Patriarch of Jerusalem in the place of the Norman Arnulf, 
whose election was declared irregular 4 ; and at his hands the 
chief leaders of the Crusade, 

The worthy champions of our God, 
The honourable soldiers of the highest, 

voluntarily accepted the investiture of their Syrian fiefs 5 . As 
God's vassals they had won them from the infidel, and the 
homage which they owed to their Celestial Lord they did to 
the Legate as His representative. But Daibert demanded more 
than this: in the Holy City, at any rate, the sovereignty of the 
Church must be immediate and absolute; where God had 
suffered for mankind none but God's vicar must bear rule. 
Nor was precedent lacking for such a claim. Already, in 1063, 
the Soldan of Egypt, Abu-Tamin-Mostanser-Billah, had as- 
signed to the Christians a special quarter of Jerusalem, and 
over that the Patriarch, if we may credit William of Tyre, had 
ruled supreme 6 . His jurisdiction, in fact, had been coincident 
with the Christianity of the population, and, now that the entire 
city instead of only a single quarter of it, was Christian, it was 
but logical that his authority should be proportionately in- 

1 " Vir in litteris potentissimus atque eloquentissimus." 

2 Main (/ Pisani alle prime Crociate, op. cit. p. 27) tells us that Daibert 
had represented the Holy See at the Court of King Alphonso VII of Castile. 

3 Gesta Francorum, p. 519, Recueil cited: Miiller, Documenti, p. 360: 
"Erat et aliud quo eum magis retinuerunt: Pisanos enim et Ianuenses, cum 
quibus ipse Daimbertus venerat, in sua quasi potestate habebat, ut quicquid 
ipse vellet, ipsi vellent et facerent. Ideoque necessarium et valde oppor- 
tunum reipublicae suae duxerunt, si talem virum haberent, cujus industria 
et sollertia civitates super mare sitas navigio caperent." 

4 Dal Borgo, Dipt. pis. p. 84: "...reprobum hominem Arnulphum nomine, 
qui per simoniae labem in Jerosolimitanam sedem intrudere sese prae- 
sumebat." 

5 Gibbon, chap, lviii; Hodgson, op. cit. p. 239. 

6 Gul. Tyr. IX, 18; Miiller, Documenti, p. 363: "...praedicta pars civitatis 
quarta alium non habuit iudicem vel dominum, nisi patriarcham, et earn 
quasi propriam ecclesia sibi perpetuo vindicavit." 



1099-noo] THE FIRST CRUSADE 51 

creased. Daibert, therefore, called upon Godfrey to "restore" 
to him the whole of Jerusalem together with the port of Jaffa 
— civitatem sanctam Deo adscriptam et eiusdem civitatis prae- 
sidium, simulque urbem Ioppensem cum suis pertinentiis. To yield 
was to strip himself of almost all his infant kingdom, but the 
pious Godfrey dared not offer that "firm and generous refusal' ' 
which the historian of a later age would seem to have expected 
of him 1 . "Vir humilis erat et mansuetus ac timens sermones 
Domini," says the chronicler; and that which he had conquered 
for God he would not deal with as his own 2 . On the day of the 
Purification of the Blessed Virgin (2 February, 1100) he ceded 
to the Church a fourth part of the town of Jaffa, and, on the 
following Easter, "he resigned the City of Jerusalem with the 
Tower of David and all its appurtenances into the hand of the 
Lord Patriarch 3 ." Ere long, the beaked ships of Pisa and of 
Genoa came from Laodicea to Jaffa 4 , and, at the invitation of 
their Archbishop, the Pisans lent their aid to the Crusaders in 
rebuilding the walls and towers of the war- wasted Jerusalem 5 . 
In the autumn of 1099 a second expedition of fifty galleys 
seems to have sailed from Pisa, but only to be attacked and 
defeated by a far larger Venetian fleet which was wintering at 
Rhodes on its way to Palestine. The whole incident is obscure ; 
but we may probably assume that the Venetian attack was in- 
stigated by the ambassadors of Alexius, who were then in Rhodes 
and seized this opportunity of avenging the sack of the Ionian 
Islands in the preceding summer. The Venetians made use of 

1 Gibbon, ubi cit. 

2 Cf. WyclirTe's Bible: 2 Tim. ii. 4: 'No man that holdeth knighthood 
to God inwlappith silfe with wordli redis." 

3 "Postea, die sancto subsequentis Paschae in praesentia cleri et populi, 
qui ad diem festum advenerant, urbem Hierosolymam cum turri David et 
universis ejus pertinentiis in manu domini patriarchae resignavit." It would 
seem, however, that Daibert only obtained immediate possession of one 
quarter of the city with an eventual reversion in the rest should Godfrey 
die without issue. Gibbon, ubi cit.; Michaud, 1, 269, 270; Main, op. cit. 
pp. 29, 30. 

4 Gesta Francorum, p. 524; Muller, Documenti, p. 366: "...stolus navium 
rostratarum Ianuensium et Pisanorum de portu Laodiciae exeuntes appli- 
cuerunt Ioppen." 

5 Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, vi, 100: "ibique Pisani morantes per ali- 
quantum temporis et inopem urbem reaedificantes ad propria regressi sunt." 

4—2 



52 THE FIRST CRUSADE [ch. iv 

their victory to exact conditions which, had they been observed, 
would for ever have debarred the Pisans from establishing com- 
mercial relations with the Eastern Empire ; and it is clear that, 
whatever their pretext may have been, the real motive of their 
attack was the dread of Pisan rivalry in the markets of the 
Levant 1 . Nor is it impossible that the infinite leisureliness of 
their movements, when they at last resumed their voyage to- 
wards Palestine in the spring, may have been due to fear of 
Pisan reprisals. Not until June, noo, did they cast anchor in 
the harbour of Jaffa, and by that time it is probable that the 
Pisan fleet which had been led by Daibert was already on its 
homeward way 2 . It once more ravaged the Ionian Islands, and, 
if Venice escaped punishment, Alexius did not 3 . 

The sojourn of the Venetians in Syrian waters was of the 
briefest, and immediately after the fall of Caifa, in August, 
noo, they returned to their lagoons 4 ; but the conquest of the 
Syrian seaboard was not arrested by their departure. Arsuf and 
Caesarea were taken in 1 101, Tortosa in 1 102, Acre and Gibellet 
(Byblos) in 1104; and in all these sieges, if we may credit Ron- 
cioni, the Pisans as well as the Genoese played an important 
part 5 . That the Genoese did so is beyond dispute; the inter- 
vention of the Pisans is more doubtful. Less fortunate than 
their rivals, they found no CafTaro to record their achievements, 
and modern writers are inclined to believe that the share of the 
Pisans in the first Crusade was practically confined to the ex- 
pedition under Daibert 6 . So far as the Commune is concerned 
this was almost certainly the case ; but it can hardly be doubted 

1 See Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 141-143, where all the authorities are cited 
and discussed. 

2 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 144. 

3 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 152; Sardo, Cronaca Pisana, ubi cit. cxi, in Arch. 
Stor. It. T. vi, P. 11, p. 79. 

4 Hodgson, op. cit. pp. 240, 241. 

5 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 153 et seq. He is apparently speaking of a fresh 
expedition despatched after the return of the fleet which had been led by 
Daibert: "In questo mezzo i Pisani, avendo fatto gran preparamento...de- 
liberarono ritornare in Soria. Per la qual cosa, 1' anno mci, cavarono fuora 
1' armata ; e sotto il governo d' Ildebrando Visconti consolo, la mandarono 
in ajuto e soccorso di Terrasanta." 

6 Muller, Documenti, p. 367; Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 151, 152. 



iioo-iio 9 ] THE FIRST CRUSADE 53 

that there were Pisan armatori in the Christian fleets ; and it is 
admitted that a considerable number of those who had come 
with Daibert remained in Palestine under his protection 1 . 
Albert of Aix mentions the Pisans repeatedly, and, in the Gesta 
Francorum, we read that after the fall of Acre, "Januenses et 
Pisani nostrique de spoliis eorum ditati sunt 2 ." In the Liber 
Iurium of Genoa 3 we have record of a certain "Gandolfus 
Pisanus filius Fiopie" whose services were rewarded by the 
same exemption from imposts as Baldwin granted to the Geno- 
ese. Pisan corsairs joined in the attack on Sidon, in 1108 4 ; and 
a document of the same year proves that the Pisans had already 
obtained substantial privileges from Tancred both in Antioch 
and Laodicea "pro auxilio quod ei fecerunt ad devincendos 
Grecos." In the former city he had given them the quarter of 
San Salvator (vicum Sancti Salvatoris undique) ; in the latter the 
church of St Nicolas and a street of arcades {voltas Prodromi) 
running down to the sea, together with free use of the harbour, 
sine aliquo munere ac consuetudine 5 . The value of these con- 
cessions will be realized when we recall the fact that Antioch 
was famous for its silk-weaving and for the manufacture of 
glass, and that the port of Laodicea formed the terminus of 
one of the principal trade-routes to the remoter East 6 . It is 
further possible that Pisans took part in the siege of Tripoli, in 
1109 7 ; but, from thenceforward for more than a decade, 
we have no record of their presence in Syria. The Balearic 
expedition and the war with Genoa occupied all their 
energies. 

The commercial activities of Pisa were, however, no longer 



1 Muller, Documenti, p. ix. 

2 Gesta Franc, p. 537. Cf. Albert Aquen. IX, 27, in the collection of 
Bongars; Muller, Documenti, p. 367. 

3 Liber Iurium Reipub. Ianuensis, 1, 16, cited by Muller, p. 369. 

4 Albert Aquensis, x, 45; Muller, p. 370: "...Balduinus rex contractis 
undique copiis a mari et terra ex diversis nationibus regni Italiae, videlicet 
Pisanorum, Genuensium, Venetorum, Malfetanorum, omniumque eorum 
qui more praedonum expugnare et expoliare solent navigantes — " 

5 Muller, Doc. 1, p. 3 ; Dal Borgo, Dipl. pis. p. 85. 

6 Muller, pp. ix, 372-375, and authorities there cited. 

7 Hodgson, op. cit. p. 242; Muller, p. 370. 



54 THE FIRST CRUSADE [ch. iv 

confined to the Western Mediterranean, and ere long she ob- 
tained a footing in Constantinople itself. Alexius knew her 
strength for he had felt the weight of her vengeance, and no 
sooner was he threatened by the crusade which Bohemond 
preached against the Byzantine Empire 1 than he resolved if pos- 
sible to convert her from an enemy into an ally. After pro- 
tracted negotiations the Imperial Curopalata 2 , Basileus Mesi- 
merius, was sent to Pisa and, on the 18th of April, mi, the 
Republic entered into a solemn undertaking to abstain from 
hostilities against the Empire and to make no alliance with its 
enemies. In the following October, Alexius and his son, John 
Porphyrogenitus, published a Chrysobulum (xpvaoffovXkovjj 
or Golden Bull 3 , whereby the Pi sans were exempted from all 
import and export dues except an ad valorem duty of four per 
cent., and were granted a special quarter in Constantinople 
with a scala, or landing-place, where they might load and un- 
load their cargoes: "Scala dabitur vobis in qua debeant naves 
vestrae applicare et honera eorum deponi." From other docu- 
ments we learn that this scala was double — quae et apparet et 
dicitur Duplex — and that it was fenced off from the public road 
by wooden palings, six cubits high 4 . Hard by were the efxl3o\ov y 
or bazaar 5 , and houses for the colonists to dwell in: "locus 
negotiandi aptus et conveniens cum habitaculis ut reponatis 
merces vestras et habitetis." Situated on the southern shore of 
the Golden Horn, opposite Galata, the Pisan of all the Latin 
quarters was the nearest to the Point of the Seraglio (promon- 
torium arci sultaninae), and, therefore, the first to be reached 

1 Hodgson, Early Hist, of Venice, op. cit. p. 349 n., and Fulcherius 
Carnotensis in Recueil, etc. in, 418, there cited. 

2 As to the Curopalata {Kovpo-rraXaT^s) see Gibbon (ed. Bohn, 1855), 
vol. vi, ch. 53, and note on p. 201. 

3 The Chrysobulum itself no longer exists, but it is textually reported in a 
document of 1192, published by Miiller, op. cit., Doc. xxxiv, pp. 43-45, 
52-54. See also Dal Borgo, Dipl.pis. pp. 151-155. 

4 Miiller, op. cit. pp. 48, 57. 

5 Hodgson (Venice in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, p. 29 n.) 
tells us that the word Z^fiioKov (embolum, embulum) " seems properly to mean 
a street lined with arcades, but it was extended so as to comprehend the area 
occupied by such street or bazaar and the houses round it." Compare Heyd, 
op. cit. 1, 248, 249, and authorities cited. 



mi] THE FIRST CRUSADE 55 

on entering the gulf (in sinu Ceratico 1 ). To the westward lay 
the Venetian quarter, at the so-called He papa, the principal 
ferry over the harbour, where the Galata Bridge now stands 2 ; 
and, possibly, it was this contiguity which rendered necessary 
the clause in the Chrysobulum guaranteeing protection against 
Venetian insolence and aggression — atrox dedecus vel turpem 
iniuriam. The battle of Rhodes was not forgotten, and the 
Venetians naturally regarded the Pisans as dangerous inter- 
lopers. Only after the Genoese had obtained a footing in Con- 
stantinople 3 and established themselves at Coparia 4 , did the 
Pisans and Venetians agree to bury their differences 5 . 

In addition to the concessions which refer to Pisan commerce, 
the Chrysobulum of Alexius contained provisions conferring 
special honours upon the Republic and its representatives in 
Constantinople. Seats were reserved for them in St Sophia and 
in the Hippodrome, and the Emperor promised to present the 
sum of 400 yperpera annually, together with two palii (^Karria 
Bvo) to the Pisan Cathedral, sixty yperpera and a palio to the 
Archbishop, and a hundred yperpera to "Lamberto iudici, Car- 
lotto et Antonio," which were to be transferred to the Cathedral 
on their decease — et post obitum horum dabuntur Ecclesiae 6 . It 
is, perhaps, unnecessary to go quite so far as Sismondi, who 
seems to regard these offerings of palii as a tribute — "un tribut 
de parade humiliant pour celui qui le paye, et glorieux pour lui 
qui le recoit 7 " — but their presentation at least proves how 
anxious Alexius was to live at amity with the Pisans ; and it is 
certain that he could have found no surer way of ingratiating 

1 See Miiller, op. cit. p. 423. 

2 Hodgson, Early Hist, of Venice, op. cit. p. 222 n. 

3 In 1 155. See p. 137 infra. 

4 Coparia from Kw-rr-q^ an oar — "ubi molendina sunt et remi fiunt." See 
Hodgson, Venice in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, p. 34 n. 

5 They entered into a confederation in 1170, which was renewed in 1175 
and again in 1180 (Miiller, Illustrazioni to Doc. xviii, pp. 399-401); but, 
in the last decade of the century, the old enmities blazed out afresh. {Ibid. 
p. 430, and authorities cited.) 

6 Miiller, op. cit. p. 53, col. 1. 

7 Sismondi, Histoire des Republiques Italiennes du Moyen Age (Paris, 1826), 
T. 11, ch. xi, p. 181. As to the presentation of palii in token of vassalage see 
my Palio and Ponte, pp. 6, 7, 59, 60. 



56 THE FIRST CRUSADE [ch. iv 

himself with his new allies. For the mediaeval Italian the Major 
Ecclesia of his native city was the symbol and embodiment of 
all he held most sacred, of home and civic liberty and glory. 
We have already seen how the spoils of Palermo and Mehdia 
were dedicated to the construction and embellishment of the 
Cathedral, and, in like manner, after the Pisans had established 
themselves in Constantinople, all the public revenues of the 
colony — embolum et scalas et stateram— were granted to the 
Opera del Duomo 1 . 

The situation of Constantinople invited the commerce of the 
world. So populous was it that it is said to have contained more 
inhabitants than there were in all the country between York 
and the Thames 2 ; and Villehardouin declares that, in the three 
fires which occurred during the siege of 1204, "more houses 
were burned than are in the three best cities of the Kingdom of 
France 3 ." Thither came all the divers kinds of merchandise 
which poured into Babylon the great, the mighty city of John's 
apocalyptic vision 4 . What wonder if, in spite of the hatred of 
the Greeks and the persecutions and exactions of the Emperors, 
Pisan merchants "waxed rich through the abundance of her 
delicacies." 

Yet important though the trade of Constantinople was, it by 
no means monopolized the energies of Pisa. By the Chryso- 
bulum of Alexius, all the harbours of the Empire had been 
thrown open to her commerce. A Pisan colony was early estab- 

1 This was in 1160, and, two years later, the donation was confirmed by 
an instrument executed by the ambassadors Bottacio and Cocco in Con- 
stantinople itself. The collection of these revenues was entrusted to the 
Prior of the Pisan churches of S. Pietro and S. Nicolo in Constantinople 
{Prior sanctorum Petri et Nicholay Pisanorum de Constantinopoli) whose duty 
it was, after deducting the sums necessary for the conservation of the Pisan 
buildings in that city and for the payment of the salaries of the officials of 
the colony to transmit the remainder to the treasury of the Fabbrica del 
Duomo in Pisa. Miiller, op. cit., Doc. vn, vm. See also Main, op. cii. 
pp. 41, 42. The embassy of Cocco and Bottacio is mentioned by Marangone, 
ubi cit. p. 26. 

2 Hodgson, Early Hist, of Venice, op. cit. p. 398, n. 2. 

3 Villehardouin, La Conquete de Constantinople, ch. 106. The passage 
referred to will be found on p. 64 of Sir Frank Marzials' translation in the 
"Everyman's Library" edition. 

4 Rev. xviii, 12, 13. Compare Hodgson, op. cit. pp. 151, 152. 



iin-33] THE FIRST CRUSADE 57 

lished at Almyro in the Gulf of Volo 1 , and she seems to have 
possessed houses and a warehouse (domos cum fundaco) in 
Salonika 2 ; while even before the long war with Genoa was 
ended by the intervention of Innocent II, in 1133, there are 
indications of a renewal of Pisan activity in Syrian waters. 

1 Miiller, op. cit., Doc. in and Illnstrazioni on pp. 369, 370. 

2 Dal Borgo, Dipl. pis. p. 169; Miiller, op. cit., Doc. xliv, p. 72, col. 1 
(at top). From time immemorial, a great trade-route led from the Danube 
valley and the plains of Hungary to Salonika. Passing up the Morava valley 
and down the Varada valley, it followed the same course as that taken by 
the Serbian railway to-day. 



CHAPTER THE FIFTH 

THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION 

A century after the expulsion of Mogahid from Sardinia the 
Saracens still maintained themselves in the Balearic Islands 1 , 
whence they continually ravaged the coasts of Catalonia and 
menaced the ports of southern France. After the preaching of 
the first Crusade, their audacity was increased by the departure 
of the flower of the Italian marine for the Levant, and they seem 
to have pushed their forays as far south as Sicily and even to 
have crossed the Ionian Sea and harried the shores of Greece 2 . 
The terror of the Pisan name sufficed to protect the sea-board 
of Tuscany from invasion, but the western basin of the Mediter- 
ranean was once more overrun by Mussulman pirates 3 ; the in- 
habitants of the islands and especially of Sardinia lived in con- 
stant peril of attack; Majorca was crowded with Christian cap- 
tives 4 , and, in 1113, the Pisans, whose commerce had suffered 
severely, resolved to put an end to a state of things which was 
rapidly becoming intolerable. With them were leagued the 
Counts of Barcelona and Montpellier and the Viscount of 
Narbonne 5 ; while, because their enemies were also the enemies 
of the Cross, the enterprise received the Papal benediction 6 . 
For this expedition our principal authority is the Liter Maio- 

1 See Amari, Notizie della impresa de' Pisani su le Baleari secondo le sorgenti 
arabiche, published by Prof. Carlo Calisse in his edition of the Liber Maio- 
lichinus de gestis Pisanorum illustribus (Roma, 1904), pp. xlix-lv. The volume 
forms one of the series published by the Istituto Storico Italiano and en- 
titled Fonti per la Storia d' Italia. 

2 Liber Maiolichinus, w. 8, 13, 275. 

3 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 162. 

4 Liber Maiolichinus, v. 26; Brev. pis. hist, apud Muratori, Rer. Ital. 
Script, vi, 169. 

5 Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, op. cit. Ill, 376; Manfroni, op. cit. p. 164. 

6 Marangone (ubi cit. p. 7) asserts that the expedition was undertaken 
" at the commandment of the Pope — iussu Domini papae." Compare Roncioni, 
ubi cit. p. 162, and Tronci, Annali pisani, p. 43. 



PLATE V 







PLATE VI 




PORTA PRINCIPALS DEL DUOMO. 



Giovanni da Bologna 



iii 3 ] THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION 59 

lichinus, a contemporary poem, formerly attributed to a certain 
Laurentius Veronensis or Vernensis 1 , but evidently the work of 
a Pisan, and of a Pisan who was himself an eye-witness of 
many of the events which he describes 2 . Roncioni speaks of 
him as "Enrico capellano dell' arcivescovo di Pisa 3 ," and it is 
highly probable that we may identify him with the Henricus 
presbiter plebanus of the poem 4 . Nevertheless, his testimony 
must not be accepted blindly. Entirely apart from the fact that 
the poem is based upon classical models and written in classical 
hexameters by one who would have found himself far more at 
home with the ecclesiastical cantilena of his own day 5 , it is 
obvious that to expect meticulous accuracy in matters of de- 
tail would be to expect an anachronism 6 . The object of the poet 
was a striking composition with grand outline, such as might 
worthily perpetuate the glories of his native city; he has no 
notion of impartiality, and he embroiders his facts without 
scruple; the incidents of the combats he describes and the 
speeches which he puts in the mouths of the leaders of the 
Christian host are, no doubt, often pure inventions ; but a solid 
foundation of fact remains ; and, with all its blemishes, the Liber 
Maiolichinus is the best and fullest source we possess for the 
history of the Balearic War. If due allowance be made for the 
licence of the poet and for the natural bias and prejudice of the 
Pisan, we need not fear to use it. 

On Easter Sunday, Pietro Moriconi, the Archbishop, as- 
cended the pulpit of the Pisan Duomo and preached a crusade 
for the delivery of the Christian captives in Majorca, promising, 

1 See the versions of the poem published by Ughelli {Italia Sacra, x, 
127 seq.) and Muratori (Rer. Italic. Script, vi, in seq.). 

2 In addition to such definite statements as those which are contained in 
w. 960, 2484, etc., the phraseology adopted constantly produces the impres- 
sion that the poet is describing what he actually saw with his own eyes, 
e.g. the Corsica sub velis fuerat of v. 188. 

3 Roncioni, ubi cit. pp. ioo, 165. 4 v. 3165. 

5 See Prof. Calisse's remarks on p. xiv of the Preface to the Liber Maio- 
lichinus. 

6 It has been truly said that the old or artistic style which was invented 
by the Greeks remained the ideal of history till quite recent times. Its aim 

^as perfection of literary form, weight and dignity of language. Mere 
^rccuracy was a very secondary consideration (Ency. Brit. Art. "History"). 



60 THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION [ch. v 

like his predecessor Daibert, to lead the fleets of the Republic 
in person 1 . Twelve consuls were elected from the noblest 
families of the city 2 and the Archbishop headed an embassy to 
Rome, where he received the cross at the hand of Pope Pas- 
chal II 3 . Thus, in a moment of crisis, we see the Archbishop 
assume his rightful position as head of the State : head not only 
on the ground of his ecclesiastical authority, but also by feudal 
prerogative. All the principal families of the city were his vas- 
sals, to say nothing of the numerous Cattani from the contado. 
The Visconti, the Da Parlascio, the S. Cassiano, the Pellari, the 
Gualandi, the Caldera, the Familiati, the Lanfranchi, all con- 
sular names, formed his Curia and owed him fealty 4 . The 
twelve consuls who were elected for the conduct of the war were 
elected ad hoc, and apparently on his motion. It would be diffi- 
cult to find a better example of the fact that the Balia was the 
original form in which the political life of the Communes mani- 
fested itself. All the magistracies were in their inception nothing 
more than provisionary commissions which in process of time 
became permanent 5 . 

Preparations for the expedition were pushed forward with 

1 Liber Maiolichinus , v. 39 et seq. 2 Ibid. v. 49. 

3 Ibid. w. 71-75: 

...clari cum presule digno 

Legati Romam vadunt, quos papa colendus 

Nomine Paschalis multo suscepit honore, 

Pontifici tribuendo crucem, romanaque signa 

Militie ducibus, que presens Atho recepit. 

With this we may compare the Breviarium in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. 

VI, 169: "Et nota quod pontifex supradictus, quando Pisani iverunt Maiori- 

cam, suis manibus dedit vexillum vermileum, unde ex tunc Pisana civitas 

vermileo utitur ubique colore." The Croce bianca in campo rosso is the arms 

of Pisa to this day. See Passerini, Le Armi dei Municipi Toscani (Firenze, 

1864), p. 208. As to the "romanaque signa," in the penultimate line quoted 

above, we may, I presume, take it, with Roncioni (ubi cit. p. 163), to mean 

the Roman Eagles, which continued for many years to be used as a Pisan 

emblem. Compare my Palio and Ponte, op. cit. p. 13, n. 1. 

4 See Volpe, Istituzioni Comunali a Pisa, op. cit. pp. 192, 193, and docu- 
ments there cited. In the Costituto delV uso, where the question of the rights 
and duties of feudatories are dealt with at length, there are special provisions 
with regard to the Archbishop who was certainly the principal feudatory ol 
the city. See the chapter " De Feudis" in Bonaini, Statuti inediti, 11 (Constit. 
usus), p. 957 seq. 

5 Compare my A History of Perugia, p. 31, and ch. xix infra. 



m 3 ] THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION 61 

feverish activity, and from half the towns of Central Italy and 
beyond "an innumerable folk" thronged to join the muster: 
Romans, Florentines, Sienese, Lucchesi, Volteranni, Pistoiesi 
and Lombards 1 : feudal seigniors and civic levies 2 . Pisa was 
still the acknowledged Tusciae Provinciae caput, and her neigh- 
bours did not disdain to fight beneath her banners in the cause 
of Christendom. Only Genoa held aloof: partly, no doubt, 
through jealous hatred of her old ally 3 , but partly also because 
her energies were fully occupied in the conquest of her southern 
riviera and the fortification of Porto Venere 4 . 

Of the building of the Pisan fleet our poet gives a vivid ac- 
count. Thinned by the construction of previous armadas, the 
pine-woods in the neighbourhood of the city proved insufficient 
for the purpose, and the forests of Luni, of Corvara and even of 
Corsica were laid under contribution, while spars and oaken 
beams were floated down the Arno from the Mugello 5 . In the 
dockyards of Pisa, on either bank of the river between Porta 
Legatia and the Church of S. Vito 6 , the shipwrights laboured 

1 The Romans and the Lucchesi are the only auxiliaries mentioned by 
name in the Liber Maiolichinus, w. 133, 134: 

Interea veniunt quidam de gente remota, 
Romaque cum Luca mittunt solatia pugne. 
However, the words "aliarum Tusciae urbium populos" which occur in the 
Gesta triuntphalia, etc. (Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, vi, 101), are confirmed 
and explained by a document published by Prof. Calisse, in his edition of 
the Liber Maiolichinus, App. 1, p. 138. From it we learn that the treaty of 
September 7, 11 14 (Pisan style), between the Count of Barcelona and the 
Pisans was entered into "coram marchionibus, comitibus, principibus 
Romanis, Lucensibus, Florentinis, Senensibus, Vulterannis, Pistoriensibus, 
Longobardis, Sardis et Corsis, aliisque innumerabilibus gentibus, que in 
predicto exercitu aderant." The Sardinians, as we shall see, joined the 
expedition when the fleet reached Capocaceia. 

2 The proceres, or feudal seigniors who joined the expedition at the head 
of their vassals, are frequently mentioned in the Liber Maiolichinus. 

3 Liber Maiolichinus, w. 135, 136; Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 164. 

4 Caffaro, Annali (edition cited), p. 15. 5 Liber Maiolichinus, w. 98-1 03. 
6 As we have already seen (p. 2 supra) there is satisfactory evidence that 

the Pisans still caulked and repaired their ships "ab ecclesia sancti Viti 
versus degatiam tantum, ex utraque parte Ami," at a much later period. The 
Church of S. Vito stands at the extreme west of the city, and the Porta 
Legatia appears to be identical with the Porta a Mare. Thus, at the time of 
which I am writing, these dockyards were outside the city walls. See Tronci, 
Annali pis ani, op. cit. p. 40, and L. Simoneschi, Delia vita privata dei Pisani 
nel medio evo (Pisa, Tip. Citi, 1895), pp. 17-19. 



62 THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION [ch. v 

continually, and by the end of July all was ready: swift galleys 
of a hundred oars, each with its deck- tower and bulwarks ranged 
about with shields ; larger galleys called Gatti or Cats, steered 
by two great lateral oars, one on either side of the poop, and 
furnished with rams for breaking the sides of the enemies' ships ; 
huge horse-transports or uscieri 1 , with doors in their sterns 
which opened outwards and downwards so as to form a bridge 
over which the horses could be led in and out ; skiffs and cruisers 
for landing and scouting 2 ; the poet enumerates them all 3 . 
Neither was there any lack of siege-towers, scaling-ladders, 
battering-rams, catapults and other military engines 4 ; the, 
smiths never ceased from their toil till all the iron in the city 
had been exhausted 5 . Some of the ships seem to have been so 
heavily laden that they found considerable difficulty in crossing 
the shallow bar at the Arno's mouth 6 . It was the most powerful 
fleet ever equipped by the Pisans 7 , and, according to some 
historians, was manned by no fewer than forty-five thousand 
fighting men 8 . 

1 The huissiers of Villehardouin and the older French writers. 

2 As to the ships of the Middle Ages generally, see Manfroni. op. cit. 
App. c, I, "Costruzione navale," and compare Hodgson, Early Hist, of \ 
Venice, op. cit. p. 250, and Archer and Kingsford, The Crusades, op. cit. 

P- 365. 

3 Liber Maiolichinus , w. 106-119: 

Gatti, drumones, garabi, celeresque galee, 
Barce, currabii, lintres, grandesque sagene. 
Et plures alie variantes nomina naves. 
His ponuntur equi, sunt quedam victibus apte, 
Ingentes alie possunt portare catervas, 
Servitiis no runt possuntque subesse minores. 
He numquam metuunt vicinas tangere terras, 
Adducunt latices, homines ad litora vectant; 
Iura galearum iuvenum sunt apta lacertis, 
Harum quamque solent centum propellere remi, 
Ordine qui bino plana nituntur in unda, 
Et freta scindentes fugiunt sic atque sequuntur 
Ut celeres capreas et aves superare volantes 
Veloci valeant undosa per equora cursu. 

4 Ibid. w. 120-126. 

5 Ibid. v. 127: Nee cessant fabri: ferrum consumitur omne. 

6 Ibid. w. 165-168. 

7 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 164. 

8 Liber Maiolichinus, p. 13, n. 2. 



iii 3 ] THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION 63 

The crusaders put out to sea on the 6th of August, the 
festival of S. Sisto, a memorable day in Pisan annals, and 
steered a south-westerly course, between the islands of Capraia 
and Elba. After skirting the coast of Corsica, they touched at 
S. Reparata, in the neighbourhood of the modern S. Teresa, on 
the most northerly headland of Sardinia, and, passing through 
the strait of S. Bonifacio, cast anchor at Porto Torres, the capital 
of the Giudicato Torritano 1 . Here they were welcomed by the 
reigning Judge, Costantino I, who, like his father, Mariano, 
before him, showed himself consistently friendly to Pisa. His 
friendship was, however, a friendship of alliance, not of vassal- 
age. Our poet dignifies him with the title of Rex 2 , and Ronci- 
oni's assertion that he bore rule in Torres "as the representative 
of the City of Pisa 3 " is a gratuitous assumption which is flatly 
contradicted by the results of modern research. The influence 
of Pisa was, no doubt, very great; through fear of it Pope 
Paschal II had been induced to recommend the legates whom 
he sent to Sardinia, in iioo-iioi, to the Genoese 4 ; even the 
art of Pisa had already begun to penetrate the island 5 ; but the 
Judges were still practically independent 6 . 

From Porto Torres the armada stood across the Gulf of 
Asinaria to Punto Falcone and then followed the coast- line 
southward to Capocaccia (Caput Album), where it was joined 
by a body of Sardinians under Saltaro, the son of Costantino, 
and Torbeno qui quondam regnum censebat Calaritanum 1 . They 

1 Liber Maiolichinus, w. 184-196. 

2 Ibid. w. 197, 198: 

...rex clarus, multum celebratus ab omni 
Sardorum populo. 

3 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 165 : Costantino giudice turritano, che in vece della 
citta di Pisa quivi risiedeva ed amministrava ragione." 

4 Besta, La Sardegna Medioevale, op. cit. 1, 88. Compare Dal Borgo, 
Dipl. pis. p. 84. 

5 Besta, op. cit. 1, 92, 93 ; 11, 253. 

6 Compare Volpe, op. cit. p. 122. 

7 Liber Maiolichinus, w. 202-205. Durbino, or Torbeno, ruled the Giudi- 
cato di Cagliari during the minority of his nephew Mariano II. See Besta, 
op. cit. 1, 88. The auxiliaries who accompanied him were obviously Sards, 
and Mrs Ross' assertion that the Pisans visited Sardinia "to embark recruits 
among the Pisan nobles who held fiefs in the island " (Story of Pisa, op. cit. 



64 THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION [ch. v 

were accompanied by the Archbishop of Cagliari, who, like his 
Pisan brother, was minded to share the toils and glories of the 
Holy War 1 . 

On leaving Capocaccia, the crusaders encountered a terrible 
tempest which drove them out of their course towards the 
shores of Catalonia. They cast anchor at Blanes, and, supposing 
that they had reached Minorca, prepared to devastate the coun- 
try, but, on discovering their mistake, sent Ildebrando Orlandi, 
one of the twelve Consuls, to announce their arrival to the Count 
of Barcelona 2 . That prince had long desired alliance with the 
Pisans and seems to have actually visited Italy in person to 
seek their assistance and that of the Genoese 3 . In these circum- 
stances, the Pisan envoy received a cordial welcome, and, on 
the 7th September, a solemn treaty was entered into "in portu 
Sancti Felicis prope Gerundam," the modern San Feliu de 
Guixols. In the presence of the crusading host and of the nobles 
and prelates of Catalonia, the Archbishop of Pisa fastened a 
Cross to the Count's shoulder and presented him with a banner 
"to the end that, whenever the Pisans should make war against 
the Saracens of Spain, he might be their standard-bearer and 
leader." In return the Count promised protection to Pisan 
merchants throughout his jurisdiction, exemption from all im- 
posts, and immunity for their goods and persons in case of ship- 
wreck. Finally, that no formality might be lacking, two of the 
consuls, "in the place and stead of the other consuls and of the 
whole of the Pisan people," received investiture at the hand of 

p. 18) seems to be entirely without foundation. Quite apart from the fact 
that the Pisans as yet possessed no dominion in Sardinia, it is extremely 
doubtful whether, at this early date, feudalism had been introduced into the 
island. See Besta, op. cit. vol. II, cap. xvu. 

1 Liber Maiolichinus, v. 1590. 

2 Ibid. w. 217-263. 

3 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 169, and authorities there cited. In the document 
published by Prof. Calisse (ubi cit. p. 137) we read of many embassies which 
had passed between the Count and the Pisans: "ab utrisque partibus multis 
transmissis legationibus." Nor is it impossible that the poet's statement 
that the Pisans were driven out of their course towards Catalonia is a fable 
invented to conceal the fact that, anterior to the departure of the expedition, 
negotiations had been entered into with the Spanish princes. It seems 
likely, as Manfroni insists (pp. 170, 171), that they went to Barcelona because 
they had stipulated that they would do so. 



1 1 13] THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION 65 

the Count "per quoddam missile quod vulgo bulcionem vo- 
camus 1 ." 

As a result of this treaty, reinforcements poured in from all 
the principal towns of Gallia Narbonensis: Aries, Roussillon, 
Beziers, Nimes; the Count of Montpellier came with twenty 
ships, the Viscount of Narbonne with as many more, and the 
Count of Ampurias and Raymond, "cui Balcius extat origo," 
with seven 2 . On the other hand, the greater part of the Lucchesi 
abandoned the crusade and returned to their homes. Unused 
to maritime enterprises, the tempestuous weather which they 
had encountered after leaving Sardinia had completely de- 
moralized them, and they had been grumbling ever since. Our 
poet speaks of them with contempt, as tillers of the soil, fit only 
to follow the plough and tread the winepress 3 , and his opinion 
seems to have been shared by the Catalonian and Provencal 
allies. "Let them go," said Count William of Montpellier. 
" For every one of them who leaves you, we will give you four, 
and four who are capable of enduring more toil than any six of 
them 4 ." In these circumstances, their defection was doubtless 
rather a source of relief than of discouragement ; but the season 
was now so far advanced that it was resolved to postpone the 

1 Liber Maiolichinus , App. I, pp. 137-139: "Trattato di alleanza fra il 
conte di Barcellona e i Pisani." A thirteenth century copy of the document 
is still preserved among the Pisan archives. 

2 Ibid. w. 427-444; Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 169; Tronci, Annali pisani, 
op. cit. pp. 46, 47; Manfroni, op. cit. p. 171. 

3 Liber Maiolichinus, w. 394-402 : 

Hosque piget venisse quidem, qui rura solebant 
Vertere, qui curvis incumbere semper aratris, 
Cunctaque consumunt vertendo tempos glebas. 
Et modo, cum nequeant sua semina tradere sulcis 
Aut conculcato pedibus procumbere musto, 
Nocte dieque moras istas casusque queruntur, 
Inque domos migrare suas fortasse minantur. 
Vile genus hominum, quorum miserabilis etas 
Presenti populo nullam gerit utilitatem. 
This passage is quite in keeping with the gibes which one still hears thrown 
at Lucca and the Lucchesi by the other Tuscans: for example, the quite 
unprintable enquiry which the modern pension-keeper in that pre-eminently 
agricultural city is supposed to address to his or her prospective guest before 
closing the bargain. 

4 Ibid. w. 678-682. 

h. 5 



66 THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION [ch. v 

attack upon Majorca until the following spring, and the Pisans 
prepared to winter in Catalonia. They had, indeed, already de- 
layed too long for safety ; while they were unloading and beach- 
ing their ships in the harbour of Barcelona, a sudden hurricane 
destroyed no fewer than sixty of them 1 . So far from being dis- 
heartened by this misfortune, they immediately set about build- 
ing new ships to replace those which they had lost, and des- 
patched thirty galleys to Pisa to demand reinforcements 2 , with 
the result that a second expedition of eighty galleys was fitted 
out and sent to Catalonia as soon as the winter was over, by way 
of Genoa and Marseilles 3 . The manning of this new fleet must 
have emptied Pisa of almost all her able-bodied citizens, and, 
if Villani's statement that a Florentine army was sent to pro- 
tect the women and children and old men who were left behind 
has any foundation in fact, it must almost certainly be referable 
to this time, and not, as is usually supposed, to the preceding 
August 4 . So long as the Lucchesi who had joined the Crusade 
remained with the Pisan fleet, they practically served as hostages 
for the good behaviour of their fellow- citizens at home, whereas, 
after their return, they may well have been eager to take revenge 
for the indignities to which their cowardice had subjected them. 
They had departed amid a storm of insult and derision; and, in 
those days, insult and derision were not easily forgotten. Nor 
were more tangible grounds for animosity lacking. A few years 
earlier, Lucca had been at war with Pisa for the possession of 
Ripafratta on the Serchio, and, after some initial successes, had 
been badly beaten. " In eadem guerra vicerunt Pisani Lucenses 
tribus vicibus in campo , et castellum Ripafractam recuperaverunt , 
et ripam, unde lis fuit, retinuerunt 5 ." Still, if the story of Floren- 

1 Liber Maiolichinus , v. 713 ; Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 172; Marangone, ubi cit. 
p. 8; Tronci, op. cit. p. 47. 

2 Liber Maiolichinus, w. 725-734. 

3 Ibid. w. 1 165 et seq. The poet does not fail to have a fling at the Genoese : 

Urbs igitur Ianue celeres mirata paratus 
Livida demisso spectabat carbasa vultu. 
* G. Villani, iv, 3 1 . Everything which can be said in favour of the veracity 
of the story has been said by Prof. P. Villari, I primi due secoli, etc., op. cit. 
I, 95,96. 

6 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 7. 



1 1 14-15] THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION 67 

tine protection be true, it is strange that no reference to it is to 
be found in the Liber Maiolichinus. 

In March, 11 14, galleys were sent from Barcelona to re- 
connoitre 1 , and, in June, after the arrival of the second Pisan ex- 
pedition, the allied fleets, now numbering no fewer than five 
hundred sail, weighed anchor and, after following the Spanish 
coast- line to the mouth of the .Ebro, steered southward past the 
Columbretes to the island of Luiza, the most westerly of the 
Balearic group 2 . Here the crusaders effected a landing and, 
though the Saracens resisted valiantly, the survivors were forced 
to surrender at discretion on the 10th of August 3 . The town of 
Iviza was razed to the ground and the victors turned their prows 
towards Majorca, where the Emir Mobascer, the rex Nazare- 
deolus of the poem 4 , was awaiting them with the flower of his 
troops. Aided by their allies the Pisans beleaguered the capital 
city of the island for the remainder of 11 14 and the first three 
months of the following year. 

Of the details of this siege it is impossible to speak with 
any certainty. It is true that the Liber Maiolichinus gives a 
full account of the war, describing the furious sallies of the 
Saracens and the persistent valour of the Crusaders, but 
it is just in such matters as these that our poet is least trust- 
worthy. At first it seemed that the enterprise might prove be- 
yond the strength of the allies. Warned by the fate of Iviza, the 
garrison fought with all the courage of despair and inflicted 
grievous loss upon the besiegers. Ere long dissensions arose 
within the ranks of the Christians; the Spanish princes grew 
weary of the war, and when the Moslems of Denia invaded 
Catalonia 5 , the Count of Barcelona, alarmed for the safety of 
his own dominions, entered into negotiations with Mobascer, 
who promised to pay an indemnity and to liberate the Christian 

1 Liber Maiolichinus, w. 975 et seq. 

2 Ibid. v. 11 92 et seq. 

3 Ibid. v. 1 5 13. 

4 " Nazaredeolus " is, doubtless, a phonetic rendering of "Nazir ad daw- 
lah " (Champion of the State), a title assumed by Mobascer (Mubasir) when 
he ascended the throne. See Liber Maiolichinus , p. 38, n. 1. 

5 Ibid. w. 2386 et seq. and n. 2 on p. 92. 



68 THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION [ch. v 

captives. These terms fulfilled the avowed object of the Crusade 1 , 
and the Count was anxious to accept them; but the Pisans 
proved obstinate. Their crusading zeal was always subservient 
to their mercantile interests, and they were bent upon the 
destruction of a nest of pirates whose continued existence was 
a perpetual peril to their commerce. Moreover, the Pisans were 
warmly supported by the bishops and clergy who had accom- 
panied the expedition and, after their kind, showed themselves 
implacable towards the unbelievers 2 . The negotiations were 
broken off, and, with the approach of spring, the siege was 
pushed forward with renewed vigour. The outer circuit of walls 
was stormed on the 6th February, 1115, the second on the 22nd 
of the same month, the third on the 4th March, the citadel on 
the 3rd April 3 . More than fifty thousand Saracens are said to 
have been put to the sword and thirty thousand Christians 
liberated 4 . The booty was enormous, much of it consisting of 
crosses of gold and silver, of chalices, candlesticks and other 
ecclesiastical ornaments which, in their many predatory excur- 
sions, the pirates had shipped from Christian churches, and 
especially those of Spain and Provence 5 . There too were those 
pillars of porphyry which, if we may credit the legend, were 
given to the Florentines in gratitude for their defence of Pisa, 
though it would seem more reasonable to suppose that they re- 
ceived them as part of their share of the spoil. There was, as 
we have seen, a Florentine contingent in the allied army. Mo- 
^ascer had died during the siege, but his successor 'Abu Rabiah 
(Burabe) together with his wife and son fell into the hands of 
the Christians 6 . They were carried captive to Pisa to swell the 

1 "Pro christianorum ereptione captivorum" (Treaty of 7th Sept. 1113, 
ubi cit.). 

3 Liber Maiolichinus , v. 2712. 

3 Ibid. pp. 119, 123, n. 2; 126, n. 1 ; 131, n. 1. 

4 Breviarium Pis. hist, apud Muratori, Rer. Italic. Script, vi, 169: "Pisani 
ultra quinquaginta Saracenorum millia occiderunt ; et Christianos ibi captos 
per diversa tempora ipso die de carceribus liberaverunt, qui numero inventi 
sunt triginta millia." 

6 Gesta triumph., ubi cit., col. 104; Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 214. 

* Apparently, Mrs Ross (Story of Pisa, op. cit. pp. 19, 20) would have us 
believe that the wife and little son of Mobascer fell into the hands of the 
Pisans. This is, however, somewhat difficult to accept when we recall the 



iii5-i8] THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION 69 

triumph of the victors 1 . The epitaph of " the Queen of Majorca" 
may still be seen among the inscriptions on the facade of the 
Duomo 2 . 

On their homeward voyage, the Pisans touched at Marseilles, 
and there, in the Church of St Victor without the walls, they 
buried their dead: "the leaders in fair tombs of marble, with 
their arms sculptured thereupon; the others all together in a 
great sepulchre which they digged in the midst of the church ; 
and there for an eternal memorial were carved these verses : 

VERBI INCARNATI DE VIRGINE MILLE PERACTIS 
ANNIS POST CENTVM BIS SEPTEM CONNVMERATIS, 
VINCERE MAIORICAS CHRISTI FAMULIS INIMICAS 
TENT ANT PISANI, MACVMETI REGNA PROPHANI. 
MANE NECI DANTVR MVLTI ; TAMEN HIS SOCIANTVR 
ANGELICAE TVRBAE, COELIQVE LOCANTVR IN VRBE. 
TERRA DESTRVCTA, CLASS IS RED IT AEQVORE DVCTA, 
PRIMVM OPE DIVINA, SIMVL ET VICTRICE CARINA. 
O PIA VICTORVM BONITAS, DEFVNCTA SVORVM 
CORPORA CLASSE GERVNT, PISASQVE REDVCERE QVERVNT. 
SED SIMVL, ADDVCTVS NE TVRBET GAVDIA LVCTVS, 
CAESI PRO CHRISTO TVMVLO CLAVDENTVR IN ISTO 3 ." 

Thence, across the Ligurian Sea they sailed to the mouth of the 
Arno. 

All Europe rejoiced at the successful issue of the Crusade; 
and when, in June, 1 1 16, at the request of the Pisan ambassadors, 
the Emperor Henry V granted the corti of Livorno and Pappiana 
to the Fabbrica del Duomo, he declared that he did so, not only 
from reverence to the Church, but because he esteemed worthy 
of singular favour the men who, with infinite toil and danger, had 
destroyed the powerful city of Majorca, "to the no small glory 
of our Empire and of Christendom 4 ." Pope Paschal II wrote 

fact that Mobascer was a eunuch: "tyrannus crudelis et pessimus licet 
eunuchus." Compare Amari, Notizie della impresa de' Pisani su le Baleari 
secondo le sorgenti arabiche, ubi cit. p. liii. 

1 As to the various legends regarding the captives, see Liber Maiolichinus , 
p. 132 and notes. 

2 It has been repeatedly published, e.g. by Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 218; 
Damorrona, op. cit. I, 157, and Calisse, Liber Maiolichinus, App. vi, p. 144. 

3 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 215; Liber Maiolichinus, App. iv, p. 143. 

* Bonaini, Dipl. pis. No. x, p. 5 ; Liber Maiolichinus, App. vm, p. 144. 



70 THE BALEARIC EXPEDITION [ch. v 

in equally laudatory terms to the Count of Barcelona 1 ; and, in 
1118, Gelasius II confirmed the rights of the Pisan Archbishops 
over Corsica 2 . Moreover, the prestige of her victories vastly in- 
creased the influence of the Republic in Sardinia; the old al- 
liances were renewed, and, probably, with fresh privileges 3 . 
The commercial hegemony of Pisa tended to transform itself 
into sovereignty 4 . Yet, so far as the Balearic islands themselves 
were concerned the effect of the war was but transitory. The 
expedition had been one of destruction and vengeance, not of 
colonization, and scarcely had the allies returned to their homes 
when the Almoravid Ali-ibn-Iusuf occupied Majorca and re- 
built the capital. Within a few decades it once more became a 
nest of pirates; and, in 1151, negotiations were opened with a 
view to a fresh crusade 5 . 

1 Liber Maiolichinus, App. xi, p. 149. 

2 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 220; Muratori, Annali, ad ann.; Besta, op. cit. 1, 98. 

3 Besta, op. cit. 1, 95 et seq. 

4 Ibid. 1, 117. 

5 Liber Maiolichinus , p. 132, n. 4. Cf. App. ix, x, xu, pp. 145, 146; 
Besta, op. cit. 1, 112. 



CHAPTER THE SIXTH 
WAR WITH GENOA 

1 he year 1119 marks the definite beginning of the long struggle 
between the Communes of Pisa and Genoa. The immediate 
cause of the war seems to have been the privilege of Gelasius 
II 1 ; but, in no circumstances could hostilities have been long 
averted. The Tyrrhenian Sea was too narrow for more than one 
mistress ; the interests and ambitions of the two cities clashed 
continually, and, thanks to the prestige which Pisa's earlier 
triumphs had won her, Genoa was being steadily relegated to 
a position of commercial inferiority. There was but one alterna- 
tive : she must either destroy the sea-power of Pisa or be herself 
destroyed by it. And here her geographical position served her 
well. The barren mountains which cut her off from territorial 
extension inland also formed a well-nigh impregnable rampart 
against attack 2 ; strategically she was to all intents and purposes 
an island, and, once she had established her authority over the 
two Riviere, the only outlet which was left to her was the sea. 
Nature had forced upon her an unity of aim which did much to 
insure success. The case of Pisa was very different. Without a 
single great natural harbour and with no mountain barrier on 
the landward side, she was continually tempted to territorial 
acquisitions and continually distracted by land warfare. Lucca 
and Florence hung upon her flanks ; the very sea to which she 

1 See p. 70 supra and authorities cited in note 2. 

2 Guarnia e de streiti passi, 
E de provo e de loitan 
De montagne forti xassi 
Per no venir in otrui man : 
Che nixum prince ne baron 
Uncha poe quela citae 
Meter in sugigacion, 

Ni trar de soa francitae.... 
(Rime Genovesi cited by Bartoli, Storia della litter atur a italiana, II, 106). 



72 WAR WITH GENOA [ch. vi 

trusted fought against her and betrayed her, silting up her ports 
and leaving her, at the last, stranded and forsaken, an inland 
city. The maritime power of Pisa was an artificial creation, and, 
in the long run, could not compete with a rival power of natural 
growth. Valour and wisdom struggled in vain against geo- 
graphical disadvantages, and the first really great reverse which 
Pisa sustained destroyed the whole of her resources. Had Genoa 
been defeated at Meloria, the entire sea-faring population, from 
Porto Venere to Nervi, from Voltri to Ventimiglia, would have 
thronged to man fresh fleets and to renew the conflict ; but for 
Pisa there was no recovery; she lacked reserve force and, once 
her navies had been annihilated, and the flower of her citizens 
carried into captivity, she could find no new material : the deso- 
late Maremma over which she ruled furnished neither sailors 
nor soldiers. Her sea-power withered away as swiftly and in- 
evitably as a tree withers when its roots are severed 1 . 

To-day, with the experience of the centuries behind us, these 
things may sound like truisms; but they were far from being 
truisms in the twelfth century. To all but the most far-sighted 
the bearding of the might and majesty of Pisa must have seemed 
an act of suicidal rashness. For the conqueror of the Balearic 
Islands with all her laurels fresh upon her who could dream of 
aught but victory ? 

The privilege of Gelasius was, as we have seen, given in 
September, 1118, and in the following spring the war began: 
"Incepta fuit guerra Pisanorum; et capti fuerunt Pisani in 
Gaulo cum magna pecunia, a galeis. xvi. Ianuensium, mense 
madii, m.c.xviiii 2 ." Such is CafTaro's account of the matter, 
and by Gaulo he very probably means the river Golo in Corsica. 
From Pisan sources we learn that the ships which were cap- 
tured were merchantmen returning from Sardinia 3 . There 

1 Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, Caffaro e i suoi tempi, op. cit. pp. 144, 145; 
Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 166, 167. In this connection, it may be interesting to 
note that the late Captain Mahan thus enumerates the four principal con- 
ditions affecting the sea-power of nations: (1) Geographical position, 
(2) Physical conformation, (3) Extent of territory, (4) Number of population. 
In all of these Pisa was at a disadvantage as compared with Genoa. 

2 Annates Ianuenses (edition Belgrano), p. 16. 

3 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 221. Cf. Manfroni, op. cit. p. 173. 



1 1 19-20] WAR WITH GENOA 73 

seems to have been no declaration of war, and we may, perhaps, 
infer that the sixteen Genoese galleys had been despatched to 
Corsica to prevent the Pisans from seeking to take advantage of 
the papal concessions. The capture of the merchantmen, as they 
were peacefully returning homeward along their accustomed 
route 1 , was an act of piracy, pure and simple. 

In the following year (1120) the war assumed a different 
character. The Genoese (we are told) collected an army of 
22,000 fighting men and appeared at the mouth of the Arno 
with 80 galleys, 35 gatti, 28 golabii, and four great transports 
carrying siege machinery "and every manner of instrument 
necessary for war 2 ." These figures are, however, undoubtedly 
exaggerated ; even in the days of her greatest splendour Genoa 
never sent forth such a fleet as that 3 . Nor is the rest of the 
narrative less open to suspicion. Having first imagined a quite 
impossible fleet, the good Caffaro next proceeds to inform us 
that the mere sight of it so terrified the Pisans that they forth- 
with abandoned their claim to Corsica and liberated the Genoese 
prisoners 4 . The question naturally arises: What prisoners? 
Thus far we have heard no word of any battle in which Genoese 
prisoners could have been taken. The chronicler, if he is not 
simply lying, must quite obviously have suppressed some 
material facts. Marangone, on the other hand, tells us that, in 
the year 11 20 (Pisan style: corresponding to the year 11 19 of 
our reckoning), "on the festival of S. Sisto, the Pisans defeated 

1 Compare the route of the Pisan fleet on its way to the Balearic Islands. 
P. 63 supra. 

2 Annales lanuenses (edition cited), p. 16. Golabio (gorabio, currabo, 
carabo, golqfro) from the Arab Ghordb (corvus), a small galley or galliot. 

3 As we learn from the Liber Maiolichinus , a galley was propelled by ioo 
oars. Therefore 80 galleys would require 8000 rowers. Gatti being larger than 
galleys, we may probably take it that the 35 gatti would account for at least 
another 4000 rowers, and the 28 golabii for 1400 or 1500 more. We have still 
to provide crews for the four transports ; and we shall, I think, be well within 
the mark if we put the grand total at 15,000 rowers, to say nothing of the 
22,000 fighting men. Even at the end of the thirteenth century, when Genoa 
was undisputed mistress of the two Riviere, the greatest number of rowers 
she could provide was 12,000. See Manfroni, op. cit. p. 173, n. 5, and com- 
pare the Tables published by R. W. Carden, The City of Genoa, op. cit. 
App. 11, pp. 272-279. 

4 Annales lanuenses (edition cited), p. 17. 



74 WAR WITH GENOA [ch. vi 

the Genoese at Porto Venere 1 " ; the appearance of the Genoese 
fleet ad fauces Ami he postpones to the Pisan year 1122. That 
date is no doubt wrong ; but the rest of his narrative seems to be 
fairly trustworthy. From it we learn that the number of the 
Genoese galleys was not eighty, but twenty-eight ; no mention 
is made of any gatti or golabii, and the Pisans, so far from ac- 
cepting a humiliating peace, "iverunt contra illos et pugnando 
eos vicerunt." Six galleys were taken and brought to Pisa "cum 
magno triumpho, ,, while the remainder only saved themselves 
by headlong flight. 

The battle of Porto Venere satisfactorily accounts for the 
existence of Genoese prisoners, though it is extremely doubtful 
whether they obtained their liberty in the way that Caffaro says 
they did. When the Genoese fleet arrived at Bocca d' Arno 
Calixtus II was in Pisa, and, in view of his subsequent conduct, 
it is highly improbable that he would have confirmed, as he 
did 2 , the privilege of Gelasius II if the Pisans had been defeated 
almost under his very eyes. It is certain that he would not have 
done so had they themselves been willing, as Caffaro says they 
were, de lite Corsica pacem in voluntate lanuensium iurare. All 
the evidence tends to show that the Pisans were victorious both 
at Porto Venere and Bocca d' Arno, and, in these circumstances, 
we can hardly wonder that the Genoese grew weary of the war 
and endeavoured to gain by corruption what they had igno- 
miniously failed to achieve by force of arms. It might well be 
more easy to buy the Pope and his Curia than to fight the 
Pisans. In pursuit of this new policy Caffaro was sent to Rome 
to treat with his Holiness about the matter of Corsica. 

The occasion was propitious, for the authority of Calixtus 
was not yet firmly established, and, when money was most 
needed, the Papal Treasury was empty. The Genoese promised 
to fill it if the Pope would consent to revoke the concessions 
which he had made to the Archbishop of Pisa. Calixtus seems 
to have jumped at the offer, and Caffaro and his colleague 
Barisone spared no pains to obtain the support of the Roman 
Curia. A contemporary document leaves no doubt as to the 

1 Marangone, ubi tit. p. 8. 2 Roncioni, ubi tit. p. 224. 



1120-23] WAR WITH GENOA 75 

methods employed. Cardinals, bishops, patricians, bankers 
were all bribed: "To Pietro, Bishop of Porto, 303 ounces of 
gold ; to Pier di Leone 100 silver marks ; to his wife an emerald : 
to Leone Frangipane 40 marks: to the Prefect of Rome 100 
marks; to Stefano Normanno 25 marks," and so on, through a 
long list of illustrious names 1 . This is doubtless the business 
which, in his annals, Caffaro boasts that pro servitio civitatis sue 
honeste et sapienter tractavit 2 . On the 3rd January, 1121, 
Calixtus published a Bull, directed to the Bishops of Corsica, 
whereby he deprived the Archbishop of Pisa of every jurisdic- 
tion over them and decreed that from thenceforward they were 
to receive their consecration at the hands of the Pope 3 . Two 
years later, he endeavoured to throw a cloak of decency over 
this scandalous business by obtaining a ratification of his decree 
from the First Lateran Council. A special commission of 
twelve Archbishops and twelve Bishops was appointed to ex- 
amine into the matter, and, although their decision was, of 
course, a foregone conclusion, all the outward forms of im- 
partial justice were strictly observed. The sentence of the Com- 
mission was pronounced on the 5th April, 1 123, in the presence 
of three hundred bishops, abbots and archbishops, by Gualtiero 
of Ravenna, a bitter personal enemy of the Archbishop of Pisa. 
In the name of his associates, he advised the Pope ut archi- 
episcopus Pisanus, deinceps Corsicanas consecrationes dimittat, et 
ulterius de illis non se intromittat. Caffaro, who was present as 
the representative of Genoa, thus describes the final scene: 
"When the Pope had heard this counsel, he arose and said: 
c Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Cardinals, doth this counsel 
please you all?' Whereupon they arose and said three times: 
' placet, placet, placet* Then the Pope said: 'And I on behalf of 
God and the blessed Peter and myself approve and confirm it ; 

1 The document still exists in the R. Arch, di Stato di Genova, Materie 
Politiche, Trattati, mazzo i . It has been published by Belgrano in his edition 
of the Annates Ianuenses, pp. 20, 21, and by Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, 
op. cit. App. 22, pp. 387-390- 

2 Annales Ianuenses, pp. 19, 20. 

3 This Bull is published by Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, op. cit. App. 20- 
pp. 380-383. 



76 WAR WITH GENOA [ch. vi 

and to-morrow, in full council, with all of you I will a second 
time approve and confirm it.' Now, when he had heard these 
words, the Pisan Archbishop, who was sitting among the other 
Bishops, was exceeding wroth, and he cast his ring and mitre at 
the feet of the lord Pope and said : ' No longer will I be Bishop 
and Archbishop of thine/ But the Pope forthwith spurned the 
mitre away with his foot and said : ' Brother, ill hast thou done, 
and in good sooth I will cause thee to repent it 1 .'" The Bull 
Quot mutationes, which was published on the following day, 
imposed perpetual silence on the Pisans touching the question 
of Corsica under pain of excommunication 2 . 

Meanwhile hostilities continued, and, according to Caffaro 
who is now our only contemporary authority, the Genoese were 
everywhere victorious. As a matter of fact, there was probably 
no great naval battle: the war had become a war of piratical 
excursions and chance encounters, and, every time that a Pisan 
prize was brought into the port of Genoa, Caffaro records it 
with unction. He is careful to say nothing about Pisan re- 
prisals. Indeed, he denies that there were any: "Magnum enim 
ac mirabile fuit quod, in to to tempore guerre, Ianuenses semper 
de partibus Pisanorum galeas et naves, viros et pecuniam capie- 
bant. Pisani vero, toto tempore guerre, in partes Ianuensium 
non venerunt, nisi cum galea una que in Provincia a Ianuensibus 
capta fuit 3 ." Had there been a Pisan Caffaro, we should, doubt- 
less, have heard a very different story. At the same time it is 
not impossible that upon the whole, Fortune favoured the 
Genoese. When we recall the fact that, between 1126 and 1128, 
the energies of Pisa were hampered and distracted by a land 
war with Lucca 4 , we shall hardly feel disposed to deny that she 

1 Annates Ianuenses, p. 19. 

2 Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, op. cit. App. 21, pp. 384-387. 

3 Annates Ianuenses, p. 24. Such exaggeration is too much for even the 
robust faith of the biographer and panegyrist of Caffaro. See Imperiale di 
Sant' Angelo, op. cit. p. 174, and compare, for a critical examination of 
Caffaro's statements with regard to the war, Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 176-179. 

4 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 234; Tommasi, Sommario della Storia di Lucca in 
Arch. Stor. It. x, 29. The siege of Castrum de Aghinolfo is also recorded by 
Ptolomaeus Lucensis, ad ann. 1128, though he says nothing of its having 
fallen into the hands of the Pisans (Documenti di Storia Italiana (Firenze, 
1876), T. vi, p. 49). 



1123-28] WAR WITH GENOA 77 

may have suffered greater damage at the hands of the Genoese 
than she was able to inflict. Her prestige, however, was still 
undimmed and her commercial prosperity unimpaired. Enough 
to prove it are the terms of the treaty which she concluded with 
Amalfi, in 1126 1 ; while the fact that, in 1127, a large number of 
Pisan artificers were employed by the Milanesi to build ships 
and wooden castles and mangonels for the siege of Como 2 is in 
itself sufficient evidence that the navies of Pisa were still cap- 
able of holding their own. That a nation whose fleets had been 
scattered and destroyed should be willing to diminish the per- 
sonnel of its arsenals and dockyards is inconceivable. Neither 
should it be forgotten that, in the war with Lucca, Pisa received 
valuable assistance from her Archbishop Ruggero, a scion of 
the powerful Pisan family of the Upezzinghi. Anterior to his 
elevation to the Archbishopric of Pisa, Ruggero had been bishop 
of Volterra, and thenceforward he ruled the two dioceses con- 
temporaneously. The Bishops of Volterra were great temporal 
princes, rich in fiefs and in immunities secured to them by a 
long series of Imperial diplomas 3 , and the feudatories whom 
Ruggero sent to the aid of the Pisans against Lucca constituted 
a by no means negligible body of fighting men 4 . 

Moreover, the Papacy was no longer in the pay of Genoa. 

1 Arch. Stor. It. S. HI, T. viii, p. i et seq.: "Due Carte pisane-amal- 
fitane." 

2 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad ann. ; De hello Mediolanensiwn adversus 
Comenses in Rer. Ital. Script, v, 452, w. 1822-183 1. 

3 See A. F. Giachi, Saggio di Ricerche Storiche sopra lo Stato Antico e 
Moderno di Volterra (seconda edizione, 1887), P. 11, cap. iv, p. 254 et seq. 

4 It may be interesting to note in passing that this Ruggero is the same 
of whom it is recorded under the year 11 27 that "a Sanensibus captus est 
Archiepiscopus Pisanus" (see Benvoglienti's notes to the Cronica Sanese 
apud Muratori, Rer. Italic. Script. T. xv, col. 14). It would appear that, 
in order to take revenge for the part which the Sienese Bishop, Gualfredo, 
had played in the matter of the Papal decision regarding Corsica, Ruggero 
leagued himself with Arezzo and Florence and invaded the territories of 
Siena at the head of his vassals. He was, however, taken prisoner and held 
captive for more than a year. See Volpe, Istituzioni Comunali a Pisa, 
op. cit. p. 12, and A. Lisini, Prefazione al Costituto del Cotnune di Siena 
volgarizzato nel MCCCIX-MCCCX (Siena, Tip. Lazzeri, 1903), voJ. 1, 
p. vi. According to the Cronica di Pisa apud Muratori, Rer. Italic. Script. 
xv > 975. Ruggero was taken prisoner a second time, in 11 39 (sic), when he 
fell into the hands of the Lucchesi, but was almost immediately rescued by 
the Pisans. 



78 WAR WITH GENOA [ch. vi 

After the death of Calixtus, Honorius II reinstated the arch- 
bishops of Pisa in all their rights over Corsica, declaring that 
they had been despoiled of them sine praecedente ipsorum Pisa- 
norum culpa et absque iudicio 1 . At the same time, he admonished 
the belligerents to make peace with one another and to turn 
their arms against the Saracens whose insolence was increased 
beyond measure by their dissensions 2 . 

The chagrin of Genoa was extreme; she had expended vast 
sums in corrupting Calixtus and his Curia 3 , and, for all that 
she had gained, she might as well have thrown them in the sea. 
The intervention of Honorius only served to fan the flames of 
war, and the year 1 126 was, if we may credit Caffaro, marked by 
unusual activity on the part of the Genoese. They came "cum 
stolo" to the mouth of the Arno, where they landed in force, 
"et vexilla et tentoria in terra posuerunt, et bellum cum mili- 
tibus et peditibus Pisanorum fecerunt"; they sacked Vada and 
Piombino, and, crossing over to Corsica, stormed "Castrum 
sancti Angeli," capturing three hundred Pisans who formed the 
garrison; "multeque alie victorie supra Pisanos in hoc anno 
facte fuerunt 4 ." Verily, Honorius must have echoed the words 
of the Psalmist: "I labour for peace, but when I speak unto 
them thereof, they make them ready to battle." Nevertheless, 
the Genoese were, at heart, weary of a struggle which, what- 
ever its vicissitudes, seemed likely to prove interminable, and 
when, after the death of Honorius, his successor interposed to 
put an end to the war, he found them no longer intractable. 

According to Tronci, Innocent II owed his salvation to the 
good offices of the Pisans, who, when they heard how he was 
besieged by the partisans of Anacletus, "set in order certain 
galleys and went to Rome and drew him out of the hand of his 
enemies, together with all the Cardinals and Prelates of his 
obedience, and brought them prosperously to the City of Pisa, 
where they abode for many days 5 ." From Pisa Innocent be- 

1 It is printed by Tronci, op. cit. pp. 61-65. The date is August, 1126. 

2 "...et debaccando in Christianos Saracenis multa crevit audacia." 

3 See Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, op. cit. p. 389 n., and compare App. 11, 

PP. 325-33°- 

4 Annates Ianuenses, p. 23. 5 Tronci, p. 66. 



1126-33] WAR WITH GENOA 79 

took himself to Genoa, and, before he left for France, he had 
prevailed upon the Genoese to agree to a suspension of hos- 
tilities until his return to Italy. In August, 1130, a truce was 
solemnly sworn by the representatives of both communes 1 . 
Innocent had discovered a means of satisfying Genoa without 
humiliating Pisa. 

Although, as we have seen, the privilege of Gelasius had been 
the immediate cause of the war, it was in reality little better 
than a pretext : the invidia of Genoa was no fiction of the Pisan 
chroniclers, and Honorius spoke the simple truth when he de- 
clared that "Ianuenses honori pisani populi invidientes et 
eorum incrementum aequo animo non ferentes, huius rei 
sumpta occasione, guerram contra Pisanos moverunt 2 ." They 
envied them their influence in Sardinia; they envied them the 
glory of their victories over the Saracens, and, perhaps more 
than aught else, they envied them their archbishop. It was by 
promising to erect the See of Genoa into an archbishopric that 
Innocent bent them to his will. 

It does not seem that the truce was scrupulously observed: 
Caffaro speaks of the capture of a Pisan galley off Cagliari, in 
1132 3 ; but that was the last flicker of an expiring flame. In 
October, Innocent, now recognized as the lawful Pope by the 
kings of France and England and by the Emperor Lothair, once 
more visited Pisa, and thither, at his bidding, came the repre- 
sentatives of Genoa. The truce became a peace, and, in March, 
1 133, a Bull was despatched from Grosseto to the Bishop of 
Genoa conferring upon him the dignity of Archbishop together 
with the Cross and the Pallium, and assigning to him as his 
suffragans the Bishops of Bobbio and of Brugnato on the main- 
land, with those of Mariana, Nebbio and S. Pietro d' Atto in 
Corsica. The other half of the island, containing the dioceses 
of Aiaccio, of Aleria and of Salona, was left to the Archbishop 
of Pisa ; while, to the end that the political division might corre- 
spond to the ecclesiastical, the northern half of Corsica was 

1 Annales Ianuenses, p. 26. 

2 See the Bull of Honorius in Tronci, p. 62. 

3 Annales Ianuenses, p. 26. 



80 WAR WITH GENOA [ch. vi 

granted in feud to the Genoese and the southern half to the 
Pisans 1 . At the same time the Primacy and the Legation of 
Sardinia were bestowed upon the Archbishop of Pisa, and his 
jurisdiction was extended over the diocese of Populonia 2 . By 
a second Bull of equal date it was provided that all future dis- 
sensions between the rival cities should be submitted to a Court 
of Arbitration consisting of four Pisans and four Genoese, 
"wise and discreet men," who were to swear to uphold honorem y 
safo amentum et bonas antiquas consuetudines tarn Ianuensium 
quam Pisanorum. The four Pisans were to be chosen by the 
Genoese and the four Genoese by the Pisans. The decision of 
the majority was to prevail. In the meantime, all the booty 
taken during the late war was to be restored, and that the peace 
might be perpetual it was to be renewed upon oath every 
twenty years 3 . 

Some two months later, Pisan and Genoese galleys joined in 
attacking Civitavecchia, thus preparing the way for Innocent's 
return to Rome 4 ; but the old jealousies still rankled, and ere 
the twenty years were ended, Genoa, "cum periurio nefandis- 
simo," renewed the war. Innocent's Court of Arbitration was 
no more effectual to keep the rivals from flying at one another's 
throats than were the Hague Conventions to preserve the peace 
of Europe in our own day or than the "League of Nations" 
will be in those of our descendants. The only lasting results of 
the Papal intervention were of a very different character. 

As yet, the two maritime Communes had allowed the main 
stream of Italian politics to sweep by them unheeded. Intent 
upon extending their commerce and securing scali and colonies 
at the further end of their trade-routes, they had held aloof 
from the great struggle between the Spiritual and Temporal 
Heads of Christendom, doing loyal service to both by ridding 

1 Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, op. cit. App. 23, pp. 392-395; Manfroni, 
op. cit. p. 179. 

2 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad ann. 1132. Apparently, the Legation of 
Sardinia was already his. See Besta, op. cit. p. 84. 

3 Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, op. cit. App. 24, pp. 395, 396. 

4 Muratori, Annali a" Italia, ad ann.; Gregorovius, Storia delta Cittd di 
Roma nel Medio Evo (Roma, Societa Editrice Nazionale, 1900), vol. II, 
lib. viii, cap. in, p. 470; Manfroni, op. cit. p. 181. 



1 1 3 3] WAR WITH GENOA 81 

the seas of the Saracens and guarding the coasts of Italy. Now, 
however, all this was changed: the infeudation of Corsica had 
made them vassals of the Church; by their origin they were 
vassals of the Empire, and they were soon to learn the impos- 
sibility of serving two masters. For the moment, all was well. 
Lothair and Innocent were in full accord, and fealty to the one 
was not inconsistent with fealty to the other; but when the 
perennial conflict was renewed, Pisa sided with the Empire and 
Genoa with the Papacy; political animosity was wedded to 
commercial rivalry, and the wars of Guelf and Ghibelline were 
waged on sea as well as land. 



CHAPTER THE SEVENTH 
THE WAR WITH THE NORMANS 

No sooner was the war with Genoa ended than the Moorish 
princes of Spain and Africa sought to tie the hands of the Pisans 
by treaties and concessions. In June, 1133, two galleys ap- 
peared at the mouth of the Arno bearing ambassadors from 
Abu-Ibn-Iusuf, Emir of Morocco, from the Emir ofyjlejncejrf 
and from the head of the tribe of the Beni Meimum (the Gaido 
Maimone of the chronicles), lord of Almeria. With them a " pax " 
and confederation was entered into, whereby a vast stretch of 
African sea-board and the richest of the Spanish States were 
thrown open to Pisan commerce 1 . In the following September, 
Innocent, finding himself insecure in Rome, where the partisans 
of Anacletus still occupied almost all the towers and fortresses 
of the city, once more took refuge in Pisa 2 , and there, on the 
30th May, 1 134, a General Council was assembled: "Tertio 
Kalendas Iunii, celebratum et incoeptum est Concilium, domino 
et summo pontifice Innocentio papa praesidente, cum multi- 
tudine patriarcharum, archiepiscoporum, episcoporum, abba- 
tum et sacerdotum, clericorum." Among the rest was St Ber- 
nard of Clairvaux. The Council of Pisa consolidated the power 
of Innocent ; many recalcitrant bishops were deprived of their 
sees, and even Milan abandoned the cause of his adversary. 
The peaceful conquest of that city was the work of St Bernard 
and constitutes the greatest of his many triumphs. The welcome 
which he received at the hands of the citizens was, perhaps, 
the most splendid spectacle of the century. The whole popula- 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 8; Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 241; Manfroni, op. cit. 
p. 194. Compare as to the tribe of the Beni Meimum, Amari, Storia dei 
Musulmani, in, 377-379, notes. 

2 St Bernard wrote to the Pisans: Assumitur Pisa in locum Romae, et de 
cunctis nobilibus terrae ad apostolicae sedis culmen eligitur (Ep. cxxx). Com- 
pare Roncioni, ubi cit. pp. 242, 243, and Tronci, Annali, ad ann. 



1 1 3 3] THE WAR WITH THE NORMANS 83 

tion, men, women and children in their thousands, issued forth 
from the gates to meet him and to do him reverence. They 
kissed his feet; they struggled for fragments of his habit; he 
scarcely escaped alive from their adoring violence. All Italy 
north of the Tiber acknowledged Innocent as the canonically 
elected Pope ; only Rome, the Campagna and the Norman states 
of the south remained faithful to his rival 1 . Personal friendship 
and policy alike bound the King of Sicily to Anacletus whose 
complacency had enabled him to assume the royal title with all 
the legality which an anti-pope could bestow 2 . The overthrow 
of Roger was therefore a necessary preliminary to the deposition 
t of Anacletus, and the aegis of the Papacy was extended over the 
revolted baronage. 

Already in 1133, before Lothair and Innocent had withdrawn 
from Rome, Robert of Capua and Rainulf of Alife had come 
thither to implore their assistance against Roger, and the former 
had subsequently passed by sea to Pisa 3 . Jealous of the growing 
maritime power of Sicily, the Pisans lent a favourable ear to his 
petition, and, on the receipt of three thousand pounds of silver, 
undertook to equip a hundred ships by the following March. 
The Genoese also promised their co-operation ; but they were 
either bought by the Norman king, or, as a letter of St Bernard's 
would lead us to suppose, had never had any real intention of 
taking part in the expedition, being rather minded to attack the 
territories of Pisa as soon as the departure of the Pisan galleys 
had left them defenceless. Thus the Genoese not only sent no 
ships themselves but also prevented the Pisans, who had got 
wind of their treachery, from sending anything like the number 
they had promised. Instead of a hundred galleys, a tiny fleet 
with two consuls and a thousand men was all the succour that 

1 Gregorovius, op. tit. vol. II, lib. vin, c. in, pp. 471, 472; Muratori, 
Annali d' Italia, ad annum. 

2 The royal style in the early years of the reign was Sicilie Apulie et 
Calabrie rex; the final form was rex Sicilie ducatus Apulie et principatus 
Capue. For all that concerns the conquests and administration of Roger II 
see the first two chapters of Miss E. Jamison's "The Norman Administration 
of Apulia and Capua," published in the Papers of the British School at Rome, 
vol. vi, p. 221 seq. 

3 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad ann. 

6—2 



84 THE WAR WITH THE NORMANS [ch. vii 

arrived in Neapolitan waters 1 . Naples, indeed, beat off her 
assailants, but the Principality of Capua fell into the hands of 
Roger, while Robert was away at Pisa endeavouring to hasten 
the despatch of the long-expected fleet 2 . What wonder if Maran- 
gone dismisses the whole matter in a single sentence: "Anno 
Domini mcxxxiiii, in mense Septembris, incoepta est lis a 
Pisanis cum rege qui dicitur Rogerius. ,, All the vast expense 
incurred by Sergius of Naples and Robert of Capua had been 
incurred in vain. They had even pledged the ornaments of the 
churches to pay for the assistance of Genoa and Pisa. 

Meanwhile Innocent despatched letter after letter to Lothair, 
beseeching him to come to the help of the Church. With the 
Pope was Robert of Capua who, after the loss of his Principality, 
had taken refuge in Pisa, where he spent his days in urging the 
citizens to carry out their obligations and to furnish him with 
the promised aid. Finally, his efforts were rewarded, and, in 
April, 1 135, twenty Pisan galleys set out to sea and entered the 
Bay of Naples. Duke Sergius thereupon put himself at the 
head of the rebels ; Aversa threw off the yoke of the oppressor 
and recalled her rightful lord, while the Pisans attacked the 
towns and castles on the shores of the bay. Roger, however, 
acted with his usual promptitude. On the 5th June he landed 
at Salerno, and, after sacking and burning Aversa, drove in the 
forces of Sergius and invested Naples. The approach of a power- 
ful Norman fleet compelled the Pisans to retire, but no sooner 
had they been reinforced by the arrival of twenty-six more 
galleys than they attempted to create a diversion by attacking 
Amalfi. Nearly all the galleys of the Amalfitani were with the 
Norman fleet and their fighting men were with the army of 
Roger. The city lay at the mercy of the Pisans and was sacked 
and ruined in a single day: "Pridie nonas Augusti fuerunt 
Pisani cum xlvi galeis super Malfim, et ipsa die capta est, et 
cum septem galeis et duabus navibus, et cum aliis multis navibus 
combusta est, et prorsus expoliata est 3 ." In the version of the 
chronicle published by Muratori 4 this statement is preceded by 

1 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 186. 2 Jamison, op. cit. p. 249. 

3 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 9. 4 Rer. Italic. Script, vi, 170. 



H35-36] THE WAR WITH THE NORMANS 85 

the words: "De mandato Summi Pontiflcis," but we may be 
permitted to doubt whether, in fact, Papal injunctions had 
anything to do with the matter. Entirely apart from their desire 
to liberate Naples, the Pisans were, doubtless, only too ready 
to seize so favourable an opportunity of destroying the last 
remnants of the maritime power of ancient rivals who still en- 
joyed many exemptions and privileges in Eastern waters 1 . 

On the same day, the neighbouring Atrani was taken, and, 
on the following morning, the Pisans marched inland and, 
"divina favente dementia," stormed Scala, Ravello and other 
places. On the third day, however, while they were besieging 
Fratta, Roger suddenly swooped upon them from the moun- 
tains with seven thousand men and drove them to the sea in 
headlong rout. Many Pisans were slain in the battle and the 
remainder hurriedly took to their ships. If we may credit 
Marangone, a Norman fleet of sixty galleys, gatti and sailing 
vessels which had been lying in wait for them, did not dare to 
attack; but Alessandro di Telese tells a very different story. 
According to him the Pisans owed their salvation to the fact 
that the admiral of Roger, who had hastened to the rescue as 
soon as the news of the attack upon Amalfi reached him, did 
not arrive in time to intercept them and they thus succeeded in 
making good their escape to the port of Naples. It is, to say 
the least of it, difficult to believe that a fleet of sixty ships was 
afraid to give battle to a fleet of forty-six, manned with crews 
disheartened by recent defeat, and heavy with the pillage of 
Amalfi. A few days later, the Pisans once more succeeded in 
eluding the vigilance of the Norman fleet, and, after devastating 
the Island of Ischia, rowed homewards, leaving Naples to its 
fate 2 . 

During the year 1136 a great league was organized by the 
Papacy for the destruction of Roger, and among the ambas- 
sadors sent to Germany were Robert of Capua and Richard the 
brother of Rainulf. Lothair agreed to descend into Italy and 
lead the invading armies in person; the Venetians and the 
Eastern Emperor, who viewed with alarm the increasing power 

1 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 188. 

2 Annali d' Italia, ad ann.; Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 188, 189. 



86 THE WAR WITH THE NORMANS [ch. vii 

of Roger in the Mediterranean 1 , offered help, and the long 
promised palii 2 were at last sent from Constantinople to Pisa : 
"Pridie Idus Augusti, venerunt Imperatoris Constantinopolis 
nuntii, qui Pisis miserunt cc de palatio palia, et unum auro 
textum mirabile, qui altari dedicavit duo auri et argenti turi- 
bula pretiosissima 3 ." It would seem, however, that Roger 
found no difficulty in detaching the Venetians from the league 
by the promise of valuable commercial advantages. "In a 
privilege of William II, of 1175, mention is made of another 
and earlier privilege granted to the Venetians by Roger, and, 
albeit the date of this earlier privilege is uncertain, it is," says 
Professor Manfroni, "highly probable that it should be referred 
to the year 1136. We may, therefore, regard it as representing 
the price paid for Venetian neutrality 4 ." The assistance given 
by the Emperor John Comnenus was apparently limited to a 
large monetary subsidy, and the Pisans, in spite of the prayers 
of Duke Sergius who came in person to beseech them to move 
to the help of Naples, made no attempt to renew the war during 
the whole of 1136. This is accounted for by Muratori on the 
hypothesis of some secret emissary of King Roger in Pisa who 
paid them for their inaction 5 ; but it is only fair to remember 
that, at this time, they were once more involved in hostilities 
with Lucca 6 , and the five ships loaded with provisions with 
which they furnished Robert of Capua for the relief of the be- 
leaguered city may, in the circumstances, have represented all 
that they were able to do. 

In September, Lothair arrived in Italy but met with so much 
opposition at the Chiusa d' Adige, at Guastalla, at Cremona, 

1 He was already master of Malta, and, after the departure of the Pisan 
fleet in September, 1135, he conquered the fertile island of Jerba in the 
Gulf of Gabes. See Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, op. cit. in, 399, 400. 

2 See p. 55 supra. 

3 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 9; Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 250; Miiller, Documenti t 
op. cit. p. 415. 

4 Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 190, 191, citing Tafel und Thomas, Urkunden zur 
alteren Handels- und Staatsgeschichte der Republik Venedig (in the Fontes 
rerum Austriacarum) , vol. 1, p. ill, where the document is printed. 

5 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad ann.: "Qualche segreto emissario dovea 
avere il Re Ruggieri in quella Citta, che con regali distorno 1' affare." 

6 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 10; Tommasi, Sommario delta Storia di Lucca y 
op. cit. p. 30. 



1 1 3 7] THE WAR WITH THE NORMANS 87 

at Pavia, and in other cities, that he was unable to move south- 
ward until the spring. He then advanced by the Adriatic route ; 
Robert of Capua and Rainulf of Alife were already with him ; 
Naples still held out, and no sooner had he invaded the terri- 
tories of Roger than he was joined by all the old elements of 
disruption within the kingdom. Many of the counts of the 
northern and central regions, notably William of Loritello and 
Roger of Ariano, flocked to his standards 1 , and, in June, a 
hundred Pisan galleys entered the Bay of Naples. Roger had 
abandoned the siege and withdrawn with his army to Sicily. 
Never were his fortunes at a lower ebb. 

After taking Ischia and Sorrento, the Pisans fell a second 
time upon the luckless Amalfi, extorted an enormous ransom 
from the inhabitants and forced them to swear fealty to the 
Emperor and to Pisa. Atrani surrendered at discretion; Ravello 
was stormed " and for three days they wasted it, and they burned 
it with fire and the men and women thereof they led away cap- 
tive to the sea." Scala also was sacked and Fratta, "and all the 
duchy of the Amalfitani was placed under tribute." The whole 
coast of Campania fell into the possession of the victors who, 
according to Professor Manfroni, had undoubtedly stipulated 
with the Emperor for a share of the territories they conquered. 
There is an old legend that Naples itself was held by the Pisans 
for seven years 2 . 

On the 24th July the Pisans presented themselves before 
Salerno which had been invested by the Imperial army since 
the 1 8th. Muratori, on the faith of the Saxon annalist 3 , asserts 
that the Pisan fleet had been reinforced by eighty Genoese and 
three hundred Amalfitan galleys 4 ; but the statement is difficult 
to believe. As regards the Genoese, the silence of CafTaro, to 
say nothing of their previous and subsequent conduct, tends to 
prove that, in spite of the exhortations of St Bernard and of 

1 Jamison, op. cit. p. 251. 

2 Arch. Stor. It. T. vi. P. 11, p. 11 n.: "...et totum Ducatum Malfitanorum 
sub tributo posuerunt et inde habuerunt Pisani Pandettam, et tenuerunt 
Neapolim per vii annos." Compare also the letter of St Bernard of Clairvaux 
to the Emperor Lothair. Dal Borgo, Dissertazioni sopra V Istoria Pisana, 
Parte II, p. 192 n. 

3 Annalista Saxo, M.G.H. VI, 774. 

4 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad annum. 



88 THE WAR WITH THE NORMANS [ch. vii 

their promises to Robert of Capua, they still obstinately held 
aloof. Amalfi, after the treatment which she had so recently 
suffered at the hands of the Pisans, can hardly have been in a 
position to furnish thirty galleys and much less three hundred. 
The idea is little short of ridiculous 1 . Moreover, neither Ro- 
moald nor Falco, nor any other Italian sources, speak of the 
Genoese or Amalfitani as taking part in the siege of Salerno. 
The Pisans were undoubtedly alone. 

Beleaguered on every hand and "strongly besieged for fifteen 
days with mangonels and siege-castles and battering-rams," 
the Norman commandant finally entered into negotiations with 
a view to preserving the city from sack, and himself retired to 
the citadel. According to Marangone, the surrender was made 
"to Lothair and to the Pisans 2 ." Be this as it may, the Pisans 
were dissatisfied. Either they had desired to pillage the city 
and were indignant that it had been admitted to terms, or they 
were corrupted by the promises of the Norman king, or they 
were irritated by the failure of the Emperor to send troops to 
their assistance when a great siege-tower that they had made 
was attacked and set on fire by the enemy. Whatever the cause 
of their displeasure, they broke off relations with Lothair and 
sent a galley to make separate terms with Roger. On their de- 
parture for Pisa, the rebels lost the command of the sea, and the 
great league so laboriously organized by Innocent suddenly 
crumbled into ruin. Within fifteen days the army of Lothair 
was in full retreat 3 . 

1 Even Professor Pasquale Villari, who follows Muratori so far as the 
Genoese are concerned, by omitting any mention of the Amalfitani, tacitly 
admits the absurdity of that part of the fable. See L' Italia da Carlo Magno 
alia morte di Arrigo VII, op. cit. p. 255. 

2 "...tandem eos intus civitatem incluserunt. Quae per quindecim dies 
fortiter obsessa cum manganis et casteilis et gattis, tandem reddidit se im- 
peratori Lothario et Pisanis." 

3 The three main sources for this war are Falco Beneventanus, Chrorncon, 
in Rer. Ital. Script, vol. v, and in Cronisti e Scrittori Sincroni Napoletani 
ed. Del Re (Napoli, 1845); Romoaldus Salernitanus, Annates in M.G.H. 
vol. xix ; and Alexander Telesinus, De rebus gestis Rogerii, in Rer. Ital. 
Script, v, and in Cronisti e Scrittori Sincroni Napoletani, above cited. The 
Ignoti Monachi Cisterciensis S. Mariae de Ferraria Chronica, published by 
A. Gaudenzi (Napoli, 1888), may also be consulted. With the exception of 
Marangone, the Pisan chronicles throw very little light on the subject. The 
best modern narrative with which I am acquainted is that of Professor 
C. Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 185-193. 



CHAPTER THE EIGHTH 
INTO THE VORTEX 

During the greater part of the twelfth century, Pisa was in a 
permanent state of war with Lucca; but, though the chroniclers 
of both cities record the vicissitudes of the struggle, it is by no 
means easy to arrive at a definite opinion with regard to any- 
thing but the general results. The most inaccurate of modern 
historians is relatively at the mercy of his material; in the 
Middle Ages the material lay at the mercy of the chronicler. 
If, however, the details of the conflict are confused and doubt- 
ful, the conditions which produced it are fairly obvious. We 
have already seen how, during the Longobard and Frankish 
periods, the diocese of Lucca had been enlarged at the expense 
of the diocese of Pisa 1 . The prolonged dissensions which re- 
sulted reproduce, in many of their essential features, the earlier 
and more celebrated dissensions between the Bishops of Siena 
and Arezzo 2 ; and even after questions of episcopaljurisdiction had 
developed into questions of communal sovereignty, the bishops 
did not abandon the contest. Indeed, the solidarity of their in- 
terests with those of their respective cities was so complete that, 
at first sight, it is difficult to discern whether the wars between 
Pisa and Lucca were, in fact, episcopal or communal wars 3 . 

1 See pp. 13, 14 supra. 

2 Pasqui, Documenti per la Storia delta Cittd di Arezzo nel Medio Evo 
(Firenze, Vieusseux, 1899), vol. 1; Lusini, / confini storici del Vescovado di 
Siena, in the Bullettino Senese di Storia Patria, v, 333-357; vu, 59-82, 418- 
467; viii, 195-273. Some slight account of this quarrel will be found in 
F. Schevill, Siena, The Story of a Mediaeval Commune (New York, Scribner's 
Sons, 1909), p. 22 seq., and in Langton Douglas, A History of Siena (London, 
1902), p. 15 seq. 

3 Compare the formula of the oath sworn to the Bishop of Lucca by the 
Pisan consuls in pursuance of the terms of the peace of 1181 : 

"Et relinquam Episcopo luc. etc. libere habere et possidere episcopatum 
suum quod est in fortia mea et districtu meo etc. ; clericos suos corrigere et 
habere potestatem in iis etc. et possessiones suas et pensiones etc., et manentes 



90 INTO THE VORTEX [ch. 

Until, by virtue of Imperial diplomas 1 , the commune, in 
its corporate capacity, acquired a recognized position among 
the feudatories of the Empire, the co-operation of the bishop 
continued to be necessary in order to give validity to acts 
the legal performance of which would have been impossible 
for citizens under the feudal law. Thus, it was the bishop who 
received the submissions of the towns and villages of the con- 
tado and the oaths of vassalage of the seigniors, little and great, 
who, having felt the weight of Pisan arms, bowed their heads 
to become the " homines,' ' not of the commune but of the 
bishop, undertaking at the same time, in the usual formula of 
the period, "to save and defend" the people of Pisa. It is true 
that the commune was represented in these transactions by a 
certain number of citizens — in the twelfth century they were 
generally the consuls — who signed their names as witnesses, 
consenting to or participating in the juridical act; but, if only 
pro forma, the bishop was the grantee 2 . 

Later on, however, questions of episcopal jurisdiction were 
gradually relegated to a position of secondary importance. The 
antagonism between Pisa and Lucca in the twelfth century was, 
in its essence, a commercial antagonism. The very limited river 
traffic of the Lucchesi, along the Serchio and in the port of 
Motrone, was not such as to produce a conflict of interests 3 . 
It was the larger question of the exclusion of the Pisans from 
so much of the foreign trade of Tuscany as was carried on by 
land which embroiled them with their neighbours. Situated on 
the great Via Francigena, Lucca was in a position to profit by 

et fideles suos et albergarias habere et distringere sicut dominus suos fideles 
et manentes distringere debet. De jurisdictione vero et districtu, quam vel 
quem lucana ci vitas, vel lucenses Consules in lucana fortia vel districtu pisani 
episcopates quoquo modo habent etc., neque guerram, neque discordiam 
faciam etc." A like oath was sworn by the Consuls of Lucca to the Archbishop 
of Pisa. See Volpe, Studi sulle istituzioni comunali a Pisa, op. cit. p. 9 n. 

1 See p. 7 supra. 

2 The commune was, in fact, for all practical purposes, the cestuy que use. 
See Santini, Studi sulV antica costituzione del C. di Firenze, in Arch. Stor. It. 
S. v, T. xvi, p. 25 et seq., and, for a long list of towns and villages which 
the bishop thus acquired, Volpe, op. cit. p. 11. 

3 " Homines qui introierint in fluvio Serculo vel in Motrone cum navi sive 
cum navibus causa negotiandi cum Lucensibus...." Dipl. of Henry IV to 
the Lucchesi, ann. 1081, cited by Volpe, op. cit. p. 150, n. 1. 



viii] INTO THE VORTEX 91 

the constant stream of traffic which flowed between the Ultra- 
montane nations and the capital of the Catholic world 1 , and, 
while her streets were thronged with merchants and pilgrims, 
Pisa stood as it were in a back-eddy. It is true that, not far 
from Viareggio, where the Via Francigena turned inland to- 
wards Lucca, it was joined by a branch road which led, through 
Pisa and the Maremma, to Rome ; but that road, though some- 
what shorter than the Via Francigena, was but little frequented, 
passing as it did through woods and marshes and exposed to 
all the dangers of the coast 2 . Neither had Pisa any such attrac- 
tion to offer as the Volto Santo ; and what pilgrim journeying 
to Rome for his soul's health would willingly fail to visit so 
great a miracle as that 3 ? The Lucchesi, however, so far from 
being content with their natural advantages, grudged the Pisans 
even the tenuous trickle of commerce which reached them by 
the branch road. The long war which began in 1143 was largely 
caused by their interference with the Via Francigena: " propter 
iniuriam de Castro Aghinolfi et de Strata Francorum et Arni 4 ," 
and, when they momentarily got the upper hand, they forced 
the Pisans to agree that from thenceforward all ultramontane 
merchants who used the Via Francigena should come first to 
Lucca ; only after they had paid import duties in that city were 
they to be permitted to transfer themselves to Pisa 5 . On the 

1 After traversing the Cisa pass and descending to Pontremoli in Luni- 
giana, the Via Francigena ran through Villafranca, Sarzana, Luni, Lucca, 
Altopascio, Certaldo, Poggibonsi, Staggia, Siena, Buonconvento, S. Quirico, 
Radicofani, Acquapendente, Bolsena, Montefiascone, Viterbo and Sutri, 
entering Rome by the Porta Castello. See Repetti, Dizionario cited, vol. v, 
PP- 715, 7i6. 

2 When Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, journeyed from Rome to 
Lyon between 1103 and 1104, he preferred to take the inland route, "non 
per breviorem sed per tutiorem viam usque ad securitatem." Volpe, p. 150, 
n. 3, citing Davidsohn, Geschichte, p. 285, n. 6. Of the care taken by the 
Pisans to maintain and repair the road through the Maremma we may 
judge from the Breve Communis of 1286, lib. iv, rubr. 17 (Bonaini, Statuti 
inediti, I, 491). 

3 For an excellent account of the legend and cult of the Volto Santo, see 
Mrs J. Ross, The Story of Lucca, op. cit. pp. 5-10. 

4 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 11. See also Volpe, op. cit. p. 152, and authorities 
there cited. 

5 De stradis vero sub nomine iuramenti ita precipimus videlicet ut omnes 
homines qui sunt ex hac parte Cisae permittantur venire Pisas per qualem- 



92 INTO THE VORTEX [ch. 

other hand, Pisa held the mouths of the Serchio and the Arno; 
she monopolized the sea-borne trade of Tuscany, and levied 
import and export dues at her own good pleasure, to the mani- 
fest detriment of the product of the looms of Lucca on foreign 
markets 1 . The aims and interests of the two cities were abso- 
lutely incompatible and clashed at every turn 2 . Hence the 
stubbornness of the struggle about Fucecchio and on the Arno, 
where the Lucchesi were able to beset the road from Pisa to 
Florence — the main artery between Porto Pisano and the in- 
terior of Tuscany — and to obstruct the navigation of the river 
to the advantage of the port which Lucca possessed upon the 
Arno 3 . Hence too the complicated and varied policy of the 
rival cities towards the feudatories of the Lunigiana and Gar- 
fagnana; a policy which, in its details, is about as confused and 
perplexing as it is possible to imagine, though in its general 
purpose it is simple enough. The multitude of petty seigniors 
who, from their strong fortresses of Corvara, Vallechia, Monte- 
magno, Aghinolfi and the rest, swooped hawklike upon the Via 
Francigena to levy pedagium and maltollectum on passing mer- 
chants 4 , were so many pawns in the great game that was being 
played between Lucca and Pisa. Now conquered, now lured 
by blandishments, they submitted first to the one commune, 

cumque partem antiquitus fuerunt soliti venire; et haec antiqua consue- 
tudo cognoscatur per tres homines de episcopatu lunensi ex concordia 
electorum utriusque partis ad hoc vocatos. Lumbardi omnes ex hac parte 
Seusae veniant per Lucam libere ad pisanam civitatem cum rebus suis si 
ipsi Lumbardi voluerint. Franceschi et Tedeschi et omnes ultramontani veniant 
prins Lucam quando veniunt de terra sua et solvant ibi suas merces sine fraude 
infra octo dies. Post octo dies permittantur venire Pisas sine impedimento per- 
sonarum et suarum rerum. De strada vero Ami precipimus sub nomine iura- 
menti ut quicumque voluerit ire Pisas et per aquam et per terram non im- 
pediatur. Bonaini, Dipl. pis. p. 30, Doc. xv. B. 

1 As to the manufacture of silks in Lucca at an early period, see Volpe, 
op. cit. p. 222. 

2 See the whole of the treaty cited on p. 91, n. 5 supra. The date given by 
Bonaini is 1158, but Professor Volpe (p. 160), n. 1, corrects it to 1155 on 
the authority of Davidsohn, Forschungen, p. 99. 

3 The diploma granted by Frederick I to the Bishop of Lucca, in 11 64, 
recognizes the dominion of the Lucchesi "in aquis seu in portu de Arno." 
Stumpf, Acta Imperii ined., p. 199, cited by Volpe, op. cit. p. 150. 

4 Compare my The " Ensamples" of Fra Filippo (Siena, Torrini, 1901), 
P- 143- 



viii] INTO THE VORTEX 93 

then to the other, only to revolt on the morrow of their sub- 
missions; but the value of their friendship was enhanced a 
hundredfold when the Genoese, firmly established in Porto 
Venere, strategically the most important harbour on all the 
Ligurian coast, were able to join hands with Lucca against the 
common enemy. Then the mountains of the Lunigiana, of 
Garfagnana and of Versiglia became a true debateable land, 
rich in diplomatic intrigues, and important for the equilibrium 
of a vast region 1 . Moreover, inasmuch as the war between Pisa 
and Lucca could not be segregated and fought out in a cock- 
pit, it soon became confused and mingled with other wars of 
other cities. Maritime Pisa was irremediably sucked into the 
vortex of continental politics ; and, because a proper apprecia- 
tion of this fact is essential to any real understanding of her 
subsequent history, I shall make no apology for dealing briefly 
with the general conditions of Tuscany at this period. 

In the first quarter of the twelfth century, -the lesser aris- 
tocracy, the Lombardi and Cattani of the rural towns and vil- 
lages, had already begun to submit themselves to the cities; 
but the power of the feudatories of the Empire was still un- 
broken, and the great houses of the Guidi, the Alberti and the 
Aldobrandeschi were able to treat on terms of equality with 
the infant communes. Of the three, the most formidable were, 
perhaps, the Aldobrandeschi, who are said to have possessed 
more fortified places than there are days in the year 2 . Their 
Contea included all the modern Sienese Maremma, with most 
of Monte Amiata and its valleys. Grosseto was theirs and Cam- 
pagnatico, and many another town and village as far northward 
as Cecina, Radicondoli, Belforte and Monteguidi. Even in the 
Trecento, after they had been broken in turn by Orvieto and 
by Siena 3 , they continued to maintain much of their pristine 

1 Volpe, op. cit. p. 151. Compare chap, xiii infra. 

2 Gli Assempri di Fra Filippo da Siena (edizione Carpellini, Siena, 1864), 
cap. 34, p. 116: "...si diceva che solevano avere piii castella che non sono dl 
nell' anno." 

3 See Berlinghieri, Notizie degli Aldobrandeschi, Siena, O. Porri, 1842; 
Repetti, Dizionario cited, App. cap. xu, pp. 55-63 ; Aquarone, Dante in 
Siena (Citta di Castello, Lapi, 1889), p. 95 et seq.\ Rondoni, "Orvieto nel 



94 INTO THE VORTEX [ch. viii 

independence and were still a source of danger to the com- 
munes 1 . Almost if not quite as powerful as the Aldobrandeschi 
were the Guidi, who. in addition to extensive dominions in the 
Fiesolan-Florentine territory, possessed numerous fiefs in the 
Tuscan Romagna, in the contadi of Bologna, Faenza, Forli and 
Ravenna, and in a great part of the Casentino of Arezzo. Speak- 
ing of one of them, Count Guido the Old, the Florentine San- 
zanome does not hesitate to declare that per se quasi civitas est 
et provincial. They were bound by ties of blood to the ancient 
Margraves of Tuscany, and it was from their house that the 
Countess Matilda chose her adoptive son, the Count Guido 
Guerra. The Alberti ruled in Prato, and from it they took their 
title of the Alberti of Prato ; they possessed lands and villages 
in the Val di Bisenzio, the Val d' Elsa, the Val di Pesa and the 
Val di Greve ; their castles studded the western confines of the 
ancient Florentine contado and diocese, and they shared with 
other branches of their family considerable feuds in the Bolog- 
nese, the Volterrano and the Maremma Massetana. We find 
them associated with the Guidi in Pistoia and with the Aldo- 
brandeschi in Colle di Val d' Elsa 3 . 

So long as the Countess Matilda lived, the Guidi were care- 
ful to maintain friendly relations with Florence 4 ; Siena had as 
yet made no definite movement towards the Maremma 5 , and 

Medio Evo," in Arch. Stor. It. T. xvm (1886) ; Fumi, Codice Dipt, di Orvieto, 
op. cit. The best English account of the Aldobrandeschi with which I am 
acquainted is to be found in E. Hutton, In Unknown Tuscany (1909), chap. x. 

1 Enough to prove it the despairing cry of the poet to " German Albert" 
(Purgatorio, vi, 109-1 11): 

Vien' crudel vieni, e vedi la pressura 
De' tuoi gentili, e cura lor magagne 
E vedrai Santafior com' e sicura. 
See also my A History of Perugia, in Index, s.v. "Aldobrandeschi." 

2 Sanzanome, Gesta Florentinorum (Florentine edition), p. 129. 

3 Santini, Studi sulV antica costituzione del C. di Firenze, Contado e politica 
esteriore del Sec. XII (Estratto dall' Arch. Stor. Italiano, S. v, T. xxv, 
xxvi, anno 1900), pp. 9-1 1, and the map at the end of the volume. See also 
Repetti, Dizionario cited, App. cap. vn and x. 

4 Santini, op. cit. p. 23. 

5 Both the Val d' Orcia and the Val di Merse were outside the Sienese 
contado which, though long, was narrow, and, in the direction of the Maremma, 
scarcely passed the point where the Arbia joins the Ombrone. Berlinghieri, 
op. cit. p. 14. 



1 107-15] INTO THE VORTEX 95 

it was not until 11 60 that the Aldobrandeschi were brought into 
conflict with Pisa owing to the seizure of certain ships by re- 
tainers of the Count Ildebrandino 1 . The Alberti, however, were 
early embroiled with the Florentines, who, favoured it would 
seem by Matilda, sought to exercise jurisdiction over a part of 
their territories. Their resentment was naturally great, and, 
when the quarrel between the Church and the Empire divided 
Tuscany into two hostile camps, the Alberti, together with the 
Pisans, espoused the cause of the Emperor 2 . As a result, the 
Florentines attacked and "destroyed" Prato in the summer of 
1107 3 , their success, no doubt, being largely due to the pre- 
sence of Matilda in the besieging army 4 . During this war, if 
we may credit Marangone, the Pisans routed the Lucchesi in 
three pitched battles, and recovered the castle of Ripafratta in 
the Val di Serchio 5 . A little later, when Henry V was preparing 
to descend into Italy, the Alberti once more took up arms, but 
were defeated by the Florentines in the Val di Pesa on the 
26th of May, 1 no 6 . In n 13, however, Gottifredo, one of the 
sons of Count Alberto, became Bishop of Florence, and, there- 
after, for more than two decades, the relations between the 
Alberti and the commune remained comparatively friendly 7 . 
At the bidding of the Emperor, Pisa had made peace with Lucca, 
in 1 no 8 , and ere long all her energies were absorbed in the 
prosecution of the Balearic expedition 9 . Until the death of 
Matilda, in 1115, Tuscany enjoyed a brief period of repose. 

Already sufficiently violent, the controversy between the 
Pope and the Emperor was embittered a hundredfold by the 
testament of the Great Countess, who, on the 17th of November, 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 23, 24. 2 Santini, op. cit. p. 17. 

3 G. Villani, lib. iv, cap. 26. 

4 "Dum in Dei nomine Domina inclita Comitissa Matilda, Ducatrix, 
stante ea in obsedione Prati, etc. Anno 1107." See Villari, I primi due secoli, 
etc., op. cit. l, 92; Napier, Florentine History, 1, 95. 

6 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 7, and compare p. 66 supra. 

6 Santini, op. cit. p. 18. The Alberti are not mentioned by name : Florentini 
iuxsta Pesa Comites vicerunt. Cf. Villari, op. cit. 1, 92. 

7 Santini, op. cit. pp. 21, 22. 

8 Muratori, Rer. Italic. Script, vi, 168; Annali d y Italia, ad arm. 11 11. 
The chronicle of Marangone, ubi cit., places this event in the Pisan year 1 107. 

9 See chap, v, supra. 



96 INTO THE VORTEX [ch. viii 

i 102, at Canossa, bequeathed the whole of her vast territories 
to the Church. The donation was, on the face of it, illegal. 
Whatever right Matilda may have had to dispose of her allodial 
property, she can have had none to dispose of her hereditary 
fiefs. Those she held of the Empire, and, on her decease with- 
out issue, to the Empire they escheated. The Pope, however, 
laid claim to the unconditional possession of the whole inherit- 
ance, while the Emperor, who, as the nearest kinsman of the 
deceased, believed himself entitled to the allodial property as 
well as the feudal, promptly declared the act of donation null 
and void. Crossing the Alps, in 1116, he took possession of 
the whole of the disputed territories. Insecure even in Rome 
itself, Paschal II was in no position to assert his pretensions by 
force of arms, and, on the approach of his enemy, fled to 
Montecassino and thence to Benevento. On the throne of St 
Peter Henry established his creature, the Anti-pope Burdino 
(Gregory VIII). 

The rebellion of Matilda against her suzerain was a lesson 
not to be easily forgotten, and, to the end that no future marquis 
should be able to follow in her footsteps, it was resolved to 
divest the office of its hereditary quality. Tuscany became di- 
rectly dependent upon the Empire and was governed by a suc- 
cession of Imperial Vicars who, although they retained the title 
of marquis, seem to have been removable at the pleasure of 
their master. The first of these was a certain Rabodo "ex largi- 
tione Imperatoris Marchio Tusciae 1 ." He established himself 
at S. Miniato al Tedesco, thenceforward the centre of Imperial 
administration in Tuscany, and, putting himself at the head of 
the feudal nobility of the province, formed a German party, 
the members of which are frequently spoken of in the docu- 
ments of the period under the generic name of Teutonici 2 . They 
were naturally unwilling to recognize the large jurisdictional 
authority which had been exercised by Florence with the con- 
nivance of Matilda; and the Florentines prepared to defend 
their usurpations by force of arms. When, in 11 19, Rabodo 

1 Santini, op. cit. p. 26 ; Villari, op. cit. 1, 102. 

2 Villari, op. cit. I, 97. 



m 9 -2o] INTO THE VORTEX 97 

occupied Montecascioli in the Val d' Arno 1 , they forthwith took 
the field. The castle was stormed and the marquis, who seems 
to have conducted the defence in person, lost his life in the 
fight 2 . He was succeeded by a certain Conrad, who may, ac- 
cording to Professor Santini, have been a member of the house 
of Scheiern. The new marquis was accompanied from Germany 
by a mere handful of troops, and we learn from the documents 
of the period that he sought to ingratiate himself with such of 
the cities as had shown imperial leanings, and, by the con- 
firmation of ancient privileges and the concession of new favours, 
to conciliate the feudatories, both ecclesiastical and lay. He 
succeeded in collecting an army at the head of which he passed 
through the territories subject to his jurisdiction, pro iustitia 
facienda 3 . Among his adherents were the Guidi who, now that 
the commune could no longer shelter itself beneath the aegis 
of Matilda, were resolved not to submit to Florentine insolence 
and aggression. They took advantage of the friendship of the 
marquis to put their fiefs in a better condition of defence, and, 
at Empoli, for example, where their confines marched with 
those of the Alberti, they compelled the inhabitants of the 
neighbouring villages to take up their residence about the pieve 
of S. Andrea, and to fortify the new town with walls and towers 4 . 
In October, 1120, Conrad laid siege to Pontormo 5 , a feud of 
the Alberti, on the left bank of the Arno, and, six months later, 
we find him encamped in the Val di Pesa. So far as we know, 
the Florentines made no effort to come to the help of their 
allies ; but in the following year the improved relations between 
the Empire and the Papacy seem to have had their natural re- 
action in Tuscany. 

After the elevation of Calixtus II to the throne of St Peter 
(11 19) the fortunes of Burdino rapidly declined, and, though 
Conrad, in obedience to the orders of his master, still con- 

1 See Repetti, Dizionario, I, 507, Art. Cascioli {Monte). 

2 Villari, I primi due secoli, op. cit. 1, 102. Villani (lib. iv, c. 29) recounts 
the siege of Montecascioli under the year 11 13. 

3 Santini, op. cit. p. 28. 

4 Santini, ubi cit.; Repetti, Dizionario, 11, 57. 

6 See Repetti, Dizionario, iv, 511, Art. Pontormo. 



98 INTO THE VORTEX [ch. viii 

tinued to uphold the cause of the Antipope, even such staunchly 
imperial cities as Pisa and Lucca hastened to acknowledge the 
canonically elected pontiff. When Burdino fell into the hands 
of his enemies at Sutri, on the 22nd of April, 1121, all Italy 
was already on the side of Calixtus. Henry himself was obliged 
to come to terms, and the quarrel over Investitures was ended 
on the 23rd of September, 1122, by the Concordat of Worms 
which reconciled the Empire and the Papacy on a basis of 
mutual concessions. A month later, on the 24th of October, 
the archpriest and provost of the Cathedral Chapter of Florence 
appeared before the Marquis Conrad, then in the Florentine 
contado, to demand justice against a certain Bonifacio di 
Tegrimo, who had occupied their corte of Campiano. Judg- 
ment was given in favour of the canons ; and the fact that the 
Florentine Church, still ruled by Gottifredo degli Alberti, was 
willing to plead before such a tribunal would seem to prove 
that, after the Concordat of Worms, the city, the bishop and 
the Counts Alberti composed their differences with the marquis 
and recognized his jurisdiction in Tuscany as legitimate. 

The Guidi, however, who still stood high in the favour of 
the marquis, continued on ill terms with Florence, and it is by 
no means improbable that the destruction of Fiesole was due 
to a well-founded suspicion that they were plotting to occupy 
the place 1 . The rocca was already garrisoned by certain cattani 
with a following of bandits and outlaws 2 , and once in possession 
of that lofty vantage ground, the Guidi might have dictated 
terms to the upstart city in the plain beneath. They possessed 
numerous feuds to the east of Fiesole, and it was certain that 
the Fiesolani themselves would be only too ready to take an 
active part in humbling a neighbour whose yoke they detested. 
The Florentines therefore resolved to strike the first blow, and, 
when the marquis was temporarily absent from Tuscany and 
Count Guido was engaged in military operations in the Romagna, 
they laid siege to Fiesole and reduced it by famine (1125). The 
massive Etruscan walls 3 , which the men of that day believed to 

1 Santini, op. cit. pp. 30-32. 2 Villani, lib. iv, c. 32. 

3 Dennis, The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria ("Everyman's Library" 
edition), it, 107. 



1 124-31] INTO THE VORTEX 99 

have been built of old time by the hands of giants 1 , were razed 
to the ground, and it was decreed that never from thencefor- 
ward should a fortress be builded on Fiesole. According to 
Sanzanome, the siege lasted for three years ; and, before it was 
ended, the Count Guido had passed away, possibly killed in 
the war in Romagna (1124). He left only minor children, and, 
during the rule of his widow Imellia, the enmity of the Guidi 
ceased to be a source of danger to the commune 2 . 

Meanwhile, between 1126 and 1127, Pisa was at war with 
Lucca 3 ; Siena, already embroiled with Arezzo over ancient 
questions of episcopal jurisdiction 4 , endeavoured to extend her 
dominion to the northward and so came into conflict with 
Florence. Ruggero degli Upezzinghi, Archbisop of Pisa and 
Bishop of Volterra, leagued himself with the Bishop of Arezzo 
and invaded the territories of Siena, only to be defeated and 
made prisoner 5 ; but the victory remained with the Florentines, 
who recovered the castello of Vignale in the Val d' Elsa as well 
as other places which had been taken and fortified by the Sie- 
nese (1129) 6 . In 1 131, on the eve of the Emperor Lothair's 
descent into Italy, we find that a certain Rempotto had suc- 
ceeded to Conrad in the Marquisate of Tuscany. Deprived of 
its hereditary character, the office had however rapidly lost 
credit, and Rempotto appears to have been a mere figure-head, 
without influence or authority 7 . 

On the death of Henry V, in 1125, the electors had passed 
over the claims of Frederick of Hohenstaufen, Duke of Suabia 8 , 

1 "Erat enim super asperum montem sita et undique circumdata muris 
et saxis ultra modum appositis in eisdem, cuius opifices, cum in cor hominis 
ascendere non posset magisterium, dicuntur fabulose fuisse gigantes." 

2 Sanzanome, Gesta Florentinorum (edition cited), pp. 126-128; Villani, 
iv, 32 ; Santini, op. cit. pp. 30-32 ; Villari, I primi due secoli, etc., op. cit. 1, 103. 

3 See p. 76 supra. 

4 Pasqui, Documenti per la Storia della Cittd di Arezzo, op. cit. 1, 569. 

5 Annates Sen. in M.G.S. xix, p. 225, and see p. 77, n. 4 supra. 

8 Santini, op. cit. p. 34. 7 Ibid. p. 35. 

8 The father of Frederick Barbarossa : 

Frederick of Hohenstaufen 
First Duke of Suabia 

. ! 

I I 

Frederick Second Duke of Suabia Conrad III 

Frederick Barbarossa 

7—2 



ioo INTO THE VORTEX [ch. viii 

and had chosen in his stead Lothair of Supplinburg, Duke of 
Saxony. War followed; but, by the marriage of his daughter 
Gertrude to Henry the Proud, a grandson of that Guelf whom 
Henry V had made Duke of Bavaria, Lothair procured a power- 
ful ally. His cause was also espoused by Honorius II, who suc- 
ceeded Calixtus in 1124, and by Innocent II, who succeeded 
Honorius in 1130. The election of the Antipope Anacletus by 
a faction of the Roman nobility had driven Innocent to take 
refuge in France 1 ; and, when the Lombard communes, the 
Hohenstaufen and the Normans declared for his rival, he and 
Lothair found themselves confronted by the same enemies. 
The bases of an accord between the Empire and the Church 
were established at Liege and at Roncaglia. Lothair promised 
to expel Anacletus and to make war upon the Normans; 
Innocent abandoned the right of investiture with ring and 
crozier, and the allodial possessions of the Countess Matilda 
were granted to the emperor's son-in-law, Duke Henry of 
Bavaria, who was to do homage for them to the Church. Henry 
was, however, still in Germany, where he was fully occupied 
with the war against the Hohenstaufen, and, in 1 135, he sent, 
as his lieutenant, a certain Engelbert or Ingilbert. Engelbert 
reached Pisa while the Council was in session 2 , and there he 
was solemnly invested by Innocent with the Marquisate of 
Tuscany 3 . 

The termination of the controversy concerning the inherit- 
ance of Matilda probably created no apprehensions in Pisa; 
her interests were still mainly maritime and she stood high in 
the favour both of Pope and Emperor. For the other cities, and 
for Florence in particular, the situation was full of peril. Since 
the strong hand of Matilda had been removed, they had been 
able, like Aesop's fox, to help themselves to the carcase, while 
the lion and the bear were fighting for it. Now, however, the 
lion and the bear were reconciled, and if Henry of Bavaria suc- 
ceeded in establishing an hereditary sovereignty in the Tuscan 
Mark, the days of communal expansion would be over. The 
future of Tuscany would lie with the feudatories, not with the 

1 P. 79 supra. 2 P. 82 supra. 3 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 9. 



PLATE VII 




PLATE VIII 




1135-36] INTO THE VORTEX 101 

cities. It is therefore hardly to be wondered at if Engelbert 
almost immediately found himself involved in disputes with 
Florence and with Lucca, while, at the same time, his cause 
was warmly espoused by Bishop Gottifredo and the Alberti 1 . 
The immediate ground of their defection may, perhaps, have 
been the destruction of Montebuono in the Val di Greve, 
which, according to Giovanni Villani, was besieged by the 
Florentines in June — the month in which Engelbert received 
investiture at the Council of Pisa. Montebuono was an episcopal 
feud and was held by the Buondelmonti as vassals of the bishop 2 . 
A similar fate befel Montegufoni, a feud of the Alberti 3 ; and, 
since their friendship with Florence had never been anything 
more than a friendship of expediency, it is not surprising that 
it failed to survive so harsh a strain. 

A little later we find Engelbert engaged in hostilities with 
Lucca for the possession of Fucecchio. The Bishop of Lucca 
had long enjoyed vested rights in that town 4 ; but it seems, at 
this time, to have been under the civil jurisdiction of the 
commune, and, when Engelbert laid claim to it in the name of 
the marquisate, the Lucchesi forthwith took up arms. He sus 
tained a severe defeat at their hands and came to Pisa to beseech 
assistance. "Ut eum auxiliarentur lacrimas multas effudit," 
says Marangone. The Lucchesi in their turn were routed by 
the Pisans; but they seem to have retained their hold upon 
Fucecchio 5 . 

In 1 136 Lothair returned to Italy at the head of a great 
army, and with him came the Duke of Bavaria, prepared to 
assume the Marquisate of Tuscany in his proper person, and 
to complete the work which had been begun by his lieutenant. 
On the 6th of November, at Roncaglia, by the advice of the 

1 See p. 95 supra. 

2 Villani, iv, 36. On the authority of the Annates Flor., in Hartwig, Pro- 
fessor Santini (op. cit. p. 38) gives the date of the destruction of Montebuono 
as October, 1135. If this be correct, the action of the Florentines was the 
result and not the cause of the defection of Gottifredo and of the Alberti. 

3 Sanzanome, Gesta Florentinorum, p. 128. Montegufoni is situated upon 
a little hill between the Pesa and the Virginio. See Repetti, Diz. m, 403. 

4 Repetti, Dizionario, 11, 351. 

5 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 10; Santini, op. cit. p. 41. 



102 INTO THE VORTEX [ch. viii 

archbishops, bishops, dukes, marquises, counts palatine and 
other nobles there assembled, the Emperor promulgated his 
celebrated Constitutio de feudorum distractione 1 , whereby every 
alienation of fiefs made by vassals without the consent of their 
lords was declared ipso facto null and void. A heavy blow was 
thus struck at the cities which, by assuming the protection of 
the lesser feudatories against the greater had induced them to 
transfer their allegiance to the communes, and had forced both 
the one and the other to recognize the jurisdiction of the civic 
magistrates within their dominions. 

After the restoration of the imperial authority in Lombardy, 
Lothair divided his army into two parts. With one of these he 
passed along the Adriatic route to the war with the Normans 2 . 
The other, under the command of Duke Henry of Bavaria, 
marched upon Tuscany. On entering the Mugello, he was op- 
posed by the young Count Guido Guerra, son of that other 
Guido who died, as we have seen, in 1124. For some reason 
unknown to us, Guido Guerra had been on ill terms with 
Engelbert, but the destruction of three of his castles quickly 
induced him to make submission, and, during the rest of the 
campaign, we find the count and his retainers in the Imperial 
army. Florence was next attacked, and Bishop Gottifredo, who 
had been driven into exile by the citizens, was reinstated in his 
see. Pistoia offered no resistance, and, after taking S. Genesio 
and Fucecchio, Henry advanced upon Lucca. The Lucchesi, 
thereupon, purchased their pardon with a large sum of money, 
and, in spite of the intrigues of the Pisans, were admitted to the 
grace of their suzerain. All Tuscany was reduced to obedience 3 . 

In December, 11 37, Lothair died on his way back to Ger- 
many, and, among the candidates for the vacant throne was 
Duke Henry of Bavaria. The alarm of the Tuscan cities was 
naturally great. As king and emperor, Henry would inevitably 
have found means to convert the marquisate into an hereditary 
appanage of the royal house, and the fate of the communes 
would have been an evil one. Forgetful of all lesser jealousies, 

1 M.G.S., T. iv (Legum, T. 11), p. 83. 2 See p. 87 supra. 

3 Muratori, Annali d r Italia, ad ann. 1137; Santini, op. tit. pp. 39-41. 



U37-39] INT THE VORTEX 103 

the Consuls of Pisa, Lucca and Florence assembled at Borgo 
S. Genesio to concert measures for the common defence 1 . 
Fortunately, however, Henry's claims were ignored by the 
electors, and Lothair was succeeded by Conrad of Hohen- 
staufen, Duke of Franconia. Civil war ensued between Henry 
and the new emperor; and for nearly two years the Tuscan 
cities were able to follow their own devices. Indeed, it would seem 
that, when Henry went northward, he left no vicar behind him. 
His old lieutenant Engelbert had certainly relinquished the 
office . In the following May we find him in the retinue of Conrad 2 . 
The new Emperor took up the same position with regard to 
the inheritance of Matilda as had been maintained by Henry V. 
Tuscany was an imperial fief; the rebellion of the Duke of 
Bavaria had worked a forfeiture ; the marquisate had escheated 
to the empire. It was resolved to revert to the old plan of 
governing the province through the agency of officials directly 
responsible to the crown and removable at the will of the 
sovereign. In 11 39 Ulric of Altems was sent from Germany to 
reassume the marquisate. His coming was welcomed by the 
principal cities. They had, as we have seen, combined together 
at S. Genesio to oppose the Duke of Bavaria, and though Henry 
was now dead, the pretensions of his house to the crown of 
Germany and to the inheritance of Matilda were not abandoned. 
There was, therefore, good reason to hope that both the Em- 
peror and the new marquis would be too anxious to secure the 
support of the communes to interfere with the jurisdictional 
rights of the civic magistrates in their respective contadi. Nor 
did the event belie these expectations. After confirming ancient 
privileges and conferring new ones in Lucca and in Pisa, Ulric 
entered Florence in August. He was received with enthusiasm 
by the consuls ; Bishop Gottifredo did homage to his authority, 
and, under his auspices, the Alberti were altogether reconciled 
to the commune 3 . The Florentines naturally endeavoured to 
make capital out of so fortunate a conjunction of circumstances, 
and hastened to take vigorous steps for the final subjugation of 

1 Santini, op. cit. p. 42. 

2 Ibid. p. 43, citing Ficker, Forschungen, etc. Ill, 310. 

3 Ibid. pp. 45,46. 



io 4 INTO THE VORTEX [ch. viii 

the whole of their contado. Unfortunately, however, the boun- 
daries of the contadi had not as yet been authoritatively de- 
limited 1 . 

Broadly speaking, the extension of the comitatus was identical 
with that of the episcopates 2 ; but in many cases episcopal 
claims were as much in conflict as were those of the communes 
themselves, and between the acknowledged territory of each 
city and the acknowledged territory of its neighbour there 
generally lay a strip of country which formed a veritable de- 
batable land, fruitful of interminable disputes and bloodshed. 
In such circumstances, it is clear that, if the marquis was to 
govern at all, he must adjudicate upon conflicting claims, and, 
since he had no sufficient army of his own with which to enforce 
obedience, he must either submit to see his decisions flouted 
and set at naught, or he must put himself at the head of the 
levies of the city whose claims he favoured and enforce them 
vi et armis against the city whose claims he disallowed. In 
other words, he must either be content to be a ruler in name only, 
or he must become the partisan and perhaps the puppet of a 
particular commune. He chose the latter alternative, and in 
1 141 he allied himself with Florence against Siena. 

The cause of the quarrel was the gradual advance of the 
Sienese in the Val d' Elsa; and, when they reached Martun 
(Poggibonsi) and prepared to annex it, the Florentines took the 
field. Here as elsewhere ecclesiastical and civil claims were 
inextricably mingled; for though the Church of S. Agnese in 
Mortennano had been subject to the Bishops of Siena since the 
eleventh century, their jurisdiction had always been disputed by 

1 A comparatively modern example of a similar state of things which will 
at once occur to the English reader is to be found in the dispute concerning 
the Abbey of Sadingfeldt on the edge of the Calais Pale. (See Froude, 
Edward VI, p. 184, "Everyman's Library" edition.) Curious results some- 
times ensued. Thus, as late as the fifteenth century, when after the sale of 
Borgo S. Sepolcro to the Florentines, officials were sent by the Pope and by 
the commune to delimit the new frontiers, their labours resulted in the 
birth of the little republic of Cospaia. Instructed to follow the course of the 
torrent Rio, one party followed the northern branch, the other the southern; 
and the Cospaiesi, finding themselves included in neither territory, pro- 
claimed themselves free. Their insignificance protected them, and only in 
the nineteenth century did they finally lose their autonomy. See F. Natali, 
Le Stato libero di Cospaia (1440-1826), Umbertide, Tip. Tiberino, 1892. 

2 Santini, op. cit. pp. 4, 5. 



1 141-48] INTO THE VORTEX 105 

the Bishops of Florence 1 . Marturi itself was a feudal possession 
of the Guidi, who seem to have connived at the action of the 
Sienese. Probably, Bishop Gottifredo had but little difficulty 
in persuading the marquis to support his pretensions; and, 
when the Florentines marched against Siena, Ulric of Altems 
went with them; "and, coming even unto the gates of the city, 
they set fire to the suburbs and burned a great part thereof 2 ." 
The Sienese, who were already leagued with the Guidi, be- 
sought assistance from the Lucchesi, and the Florentines, in 
their turn, allied themselves with the Pisans. All Tuscany 
blazed out into war. On the one side were Pisa, Florence, Prato 
and the Counts Alberti; on the other, Siena, Pistoia, Lucca and 
the Count Guido Guerra, assisted by feudal levies from Lom- 
bardy, Romagna and the March of Ancona. "Ex omni parte 
Lombardie, Tuscie, Marchie et Romaniole milites congregavit," 
says Sanzanome 3 . The Pisan Archbishop Balduino, a large part 
of whose diocese in the Val d' Era was still in the hands of the 
Lucchesi, did everything in his power to promote the war, and 
after his death, in 1145, he was seen in a vision by a Sardinian 
priest, unable to escape from purgatory, "quoniam propter ip- 
sum inter pisanos atque lucenses populos diuturna jam guerra 
versatur 4 ." Many were slaughtered on either side and many 
taken prisoner. Several years afterwards Otto of Frisingen 
saw the Lucchese captives "wasted, squalid and miserable in 
the dungeons of Pisa, drawing tears of compassion from the 
eyes of every passing stranger 5 ." The marquis was helpless in 
the face of the conflagration he had helped to kindle ; nobody 
obeyed him or indeed paid any kind of attention to him, and 
ere long he left Tuscany 6 . Both the Pope and the Emperor 

1 See Repetti, Dizionario, I, 58, Art. "Agnese (S.) in Chianti"; Pecci, 
Storia del Vescovado della Cittd di Siena, p. 190; Santini, op. cit. p. 47, 
citing Lami, Memorab. Eccl. Flor. iv, p. 8. 

2 Tommasi, Historie di Siena, Parte 1, p. 133 ; Villari, op. cit. I, 120 ; Santini, 
op. cit. p. 47. 

3 Sanzanome, Gesta Florentinorum (edition cited), p. 130. 

4 Ughelli, Italia Sacra, ill, 392. For the details of the war, see Marangone, 
ubi cit. pp. 11-13, and Roncioni, ubi cit. 

6 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad ann. 1 144 ; Napier, Florentine History,!, 107. 

6 We know that he was in Germany in 1146, in 1149 and in 1151. He is, 
however, spoken of in the documents as Marchio Tusciae up to the last 
mentioned date. See Santini, op. cit. pp. 49 and 51. 



106 INTO THE VORTEX [ch. vih 

intervened to make peace, and a short truce seems to have been 
actually concluded in 1148. The only indication of anything of 
the kind to be found in the contemporary chronicle of Maran- 
gone consists, however, in a regrouping of the various alliances. 
From thenceforward, Florence, Prato and Lucca were leagued 
against Pisa, Siena, Pistoia and the Guidi. In the following 
year the cattani of Garfagnana changed sides and sold them- 
selves to the Lucchesi 1 . 

Meanwhile, the Emperor Conrad resolved to renew the war 
with Roger of Sicily; an alliance was concluded with the Em- 
peror of the East, and every effort was made to gain the friend- 
ship of the maritime republics of Italy. Genoa was in no position 
to take part in the projected enterprise ; the expedition of Al- 
meria and Tortosa had utterly exhausted her resources 2 , and 
the hopes of the allied emperors were therefore centred upon 
Pisa. The negotiations would seem to have been conducted by 
Greek envoys, and the Pisans, while professing themselves will- 
ing to give their aid, insisted that they must first have peace 
with Lucca and her allies. In 1151 Conrad wrote "consulibus, 
capitaneis et universo populo pisano" that all his thoughts were 
bent " ad res Italie ordinandas et pacandas " ; he sent his legates, 
the Archbishop of Cologne and Abbot Vibald, to take counsel 
with the Pisans and with the Pope touching the preparations 
for the common enterprise, and instructed them to mediate 
between the warring cities. His desire naturally was that Pisa 
should emerge from the struggle as powerful as possible, and 
he seems to have openly favoured her pretensions. "Nos," 
wrote the Pisans, " Dei gratia benivolentie vostre largitate perfusi 
prospere agimus, viriliter incedimus, super hostes victores ex- 
istimus." It is said that a peace was actually concluded; but, 
on the death of Conrad, in February, 1 152, the war was renewed 
with fresh fury 3 . Only in 1155, after the descent of Barbarossa 
into Italy, did hostilities actually cease 4 . 



1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 13. 

2 Compare Imperiale di Sant' Angelo op. cit. p. 233. 

3 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 217; Volpe, op. cit. pp. 154, 155, and authorities 
cited. 

4 Volpe, op. cit. p. 159. 



CHAPTER THE NINTH 
PISAN COLONIES 

In i 146 tidings of the fall of Edessa reached Italy; a new 
crusade was preached by St Bernard of Clairvaux, and Pope 
Eugenius III, journeying northward through Lucca and Pisa, 
invoked the assistance of the faithful. At Whitsuntide, 1147, at 
St Denis, he presented a scrip and staff to the French king, as 
the emblems of his pilgrimage. Both Louis VII and Conrad III 
took the Cross, and at Metz the French were joined by the 
English and Normans under Bishop Arnulf of Lisieux. Accord- 
ing to Roncioni the Pisans sent "a passing great fleet 1 "; while 
Sardo informs us that they were accompanied by the Genoese 2 . 
Such fables are, however, unworthy of credit, being attributable 
to the patriotic fantasy of a later age. Neither Pisans nor 
Genoese had any share in the second crusade. The latter were 
fully occupied with their expedition against Almeria and Tor- 
tosa 3 ; the former, though doubtless ready to lend an ear to the 
exhortations of a pope who was not only a fellow-citizen but 
had also shown his good will towards them by confirming the 
jurisdictional rights of their archbishops over Sardinia and Cor- 
sica 4 , were far too much hampered by their war with Lucca to 
be able to take any effective part in distant enterprises 5 . 

1 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 272: "una grossima armata dei Pisani, guidata da 
Rineiri Bottacci." 

2 Ranieri Sardo, ubi cit. p. 83 : "E li Pisani e li Genovesi per mare e per 
Terra Santa pervennero in Grecia. Alii quali li Greci dienno pane con cal- 
cina viva, unde molti ne morinno e altri funno presi dalli Turchi; e fenno 
nella Terra Santa molte battaglie, pogo acquistonno." 

3 Caffaro, Ystoria captionis Almarie et Tvrtvose ann. MCXXXXVII et 
MCXXXXVIII (edition Belgrano), pp. 79-89. See also Imperiale di Sant' 
Angelo, op. cit. cap. v. 

4 Bonaini, Diplomi pisani, Doc. XII. B, p. 14. 

5 In the contemporary chronicle of Marangone (ubi cit.) the crusade is 
not so much as mentioned. His pages are entirely occupied with the vicissi- 
tudes of the war with Lucca and her Florentine allies. So far as I have been 



108 PISAN COLONIES [ch. 

Nevertheless, if the Pisans lent no assistance to the crusaders, 
they had by no means abandoned their commercial activities 
in Eastern waters, and, so far from losing such foothold as they 
had won, they had consolidated and increased their colonies 
in Syria. Thus, although we have no direct evidence that they 
took part in the siege of Tyre, in 1124, we find that, after its 
capitulation — probably almost immediately after its capitula- 
tion and certainly before the middle of the year 1131 1 — they ob- 
tained from Baldwin II a grant of five houses close to the har- 
bour 2 , together with exemption from all import and export 
duties. Later on, this privilege was confirmed and enlarged by 
Baldwin III, who, in 1156, not only granted to the Pisans 
"carrucatas quinque de bona terra 3 juxta Tyram et in Tyro 
furnum unum," but conferred upon them the vicecomitatus by 
virtue of which they acquired the right to live in Syria under 
the protection of their own laws and to be governed by magis- 
trates sent for that purpose from their native city 4 . Two years 
earlier (10th May, 1 154) they had received similar privileges and 
exemptions from Raynald of Antioch and Costantia, his wife, 
with a specific declaration that all such disputes as might arise 
between the Pisans themselves should be adjudicated "non in 

able to discover, the only modern writers who still believe that the Pisans 
took part in the second crusade are Dott. Angelo Main (/ Pisani alle prime 
crociate, op. cit. pp. 50, 51) and Mrs Janet Ross {The Story of Pisa, op. cit. 
p. 25). The opinion of the former can have but little weight since, through- 
out his book, he unhesitatingly accepts the most doubtful legends as of equal 
value with documentary proof (compare Manfroni, op. cit. p. 25); while as 
to Mrs Ross, it is probably sufficient to point out that the treaty, a passage 
from which she paraphrases, was not made between the Pisans and Genoese 
as preparatory to the crusade but after the return of the latter from their 
expedition against Almeria and Tortosa, when their treasury was empty and 
their strength exhausted. Compare Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 215, 216. The 
document is printed in Dal Borgo, Diplomi pisani, pp. 31 1-3 13. 

1 Baldwin II died in August, 1131. 

2 "in ruga iuxta portum quinque domos." According to Hodgson {Early 
Venice, op. cit. p. 255, n. 3) we may find in ruga the origin of the French rue. 

3 A carrucata terrae is defined by Coke as a "ploughland." " Una hida sen 
carucata terrae which is all one as a plow-land, viz. as much as a plow can 
till." Elsewhere he informs us that "a ploughland may containe houses, 
milles, pasture, meadow, wood, etc., as pertaining to the plough" {Co. Lit. 
5 a, 86b). 

4 Miiller, op. cit., Doc. v, P. 1, pp. 6, 7. 



ix] PISAN COLONIES 109 

curia nostra sed in sua iuxta statuta eorum 1 "; while, in 1157, 
Amalric, Count of Ascalon, granted them one -half of all his 
revenues in Jaffa (dimidium totius iuris 2, quod ad me pertinet), 
free ingress and egress for their merchandize, a building-site 
(plated)* on which to erect houses and a bazaar (forum), and, 
subject to the consent of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, a site for 
a church 4 . 

In the feudal state which was established by the crusaders in 
Syria there were three distinct classes, namely, (1) the feudal 
aristocracy, consisting of knights and nobles, (2) the burgesses, 
and (3) the so-called Syrians, the native Christians of the East. 
Each of these classes had its own court of justice : the Haute 
Cour for the feudatories, over which the king presided in per- 
son; the Cour des Bourgeois for the burgesses, presided over by 
a Justiciar with the title of Viscount (vicecomes), and the Cour 
des Suriens for the Syrians, presided over by the Rets, In ad- 
dition to these, there was the Cour de la Chaine for the trial of 
questions regarding import and export duties, instituted by 
Amalric I, and so called from the chain with which, in the 
Syrian sea-ports, the harbour was commonly closed 5 ; and 
lastly, the Cour de la Fonde (Funda), which, as the name im- 
plies, possessed jurisdiction in commercial cases 6 , and was 
created "por le seurte dou seignor e por ce qu'il est tenus de 
maintenir les a dreit vienent tos les marchans en son poeir 

1 Muller, op. cit., Doc. iv, P. I, p. 6. 

2 Muller, in the glossary at the end of his volume, states that Ius is 
equivalent to imposta — impost, tax, duty, custom. 

3 Platea is, according to Heyd {op. cit. I, 152), a building site, not what 
we now call a piazza. Compare Hodgson, op. cit. p. 255, n. 3. 

4 Muller, op. cit., Doc. vi, P. 1, p. 8; Dal Borgo, Dipl. pis. p. 89. 

5 See Hodgson, Venice in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, op. cit. 
p. 122, n. 1. "Import and export duties were taken at an office adjoining 
the chain, whence we have the expressions 'introitus catenae,' 'drictum 
cathaniae' for the duty, 'curia cathenae' {Cour de la Chaine) for the court 
that tried questions as to its payment. The name 'catena' was extended to 
the street or district adjoining the chain: we have 'in vico qui dicitur catena' 
in a deed quoted in note 3, p. 345, of vol. 1 of Heyd." 

6 The following definition is given by Muller, op. cit. Glossario, s.v.: 
"Funda locus 'in quern conveniunt mercatores de rebus suis et commerciis 
invicem acturi'; the bazaar, the market-place, known also as fundacum." 
Compare Hodgson, Early Venice, p. 256, n. 1, and Venice in the Thirteenth 
and Fourteenth Centuries, p. 317. 



no PISAN COLONIES [ch. 

vendre et acheter." It was also the special tribunal of the 
Syrians for matters of minor importance, where the amount 
involved did not exceed the value of a silver mark. 

In the absence of special privileges, Italian merchants who 
settled in Syria belonged to the burgess class 1 , and when, as 
members of a colony, they acquired the right to live according 
to their own laws, their social condition remained unchanged: 
they were still burgesses, but burgesses who, by the exercise of 
the royal prerogative, had been exempted from the jurisdiction 
of the royal courts. The consuls whom the Pisans sent to govern 
their colonies were subrogated pro tanto to the authority of the 
viscounts, and, from the point of view of the Syrian princes, 
were simply Pisan viscounts presiding over a Pisan Cour des 
Bourgeois — facts which enable us to understand why a colony 
which was erected by royal grant into a self-governing com- 
munity was said to receive a vicecomitatus . 

The fact that, like the other Italians, the Pisans paid lower 
custom duties than the subjects of the kingdom naturally made 
them independent of the Cour de la Fonde and the Cour de la 
Chaine 2 . Thus the grant of the vicecomitatus even in its most 
limited form enabled those who received it to establish their 
own courts on Syrian soil for the trial of civil actions arising 
among themselves; while at its fullest it altogether ousted the 
jurisdiction of the royal courts except in cases of homicide, 
treason, heresy or other grievous crime, and converted the area 

1 Miiller, op. cit., Doc. xxxn, P. I, p. 38: "De domibus autem burgen- 
sium Pisanorum extra honorem Pisani comunis positis consules Pisani 
possint de eis taliam recipere...." Ibid., Doc. xxxvn, P. 1, p. 60: "Si 
Pisanus aliquis teneat a me burgesiam, aud burgesiam quam de me tenet 
mini relinquat et sit tunc liber, ut alii Pisani, aud si vult tenere meam bur- 
gesiam, sicut alii burgenses mei mihi teneatur." See also Illustrazioni, 
PP- 379, 380. 

2 Miiller, op. cit., Doc. xxm, P. 1, p. 27 ; Dal Borgo, Dipl. pisani, p. 101 : 
"Et concedo eis vicecomitatum sive consulatum pro regenda curia et eorum 
honore in Tyro; et concedo eis, ut pro suo communi ponant homines pro 
suo velle ad cathenam et fundum et portas civitatis Tyri, qui habeant curam 
de omnibus Pisanis et de his qui Pisanorum nomine censentur; et ut nullus 
homo regis se intromittat de aliquo Pisano vel de his qui Pisanorum nomine 
censentur, aut de eorum avere ad katenam vel fundum vel portas civitatis 
intrando vel exeundo" {Privilege granted by Conrad of Montferrat to the 
Pisans in 1187). 



ix] PISAN COLONIES in 

set apart for the residence of the foreign merchants into a 
practically independent state. 

( Of the government of the Pisan colonies at this period it is 
difficult to speak with any degree of certainty. All the earlier 
brevi of the colonial magistrates have long since disappeared, 
and almost the only documentary evidence we possess is con- 
tained in a single rubric of the Statute of 1286 : De consule Accon 
et totius Syrie 1 . From it we deduce that the chief magistrate of 
the colony was the Viscount or Consul, a Pisan citizen and 
elected by the Pisan Commune: "per consilium majus generale 
pisane civitatis, in ecclesia majori, ad scrutinium secretum." 
His jurisdiction over the colonists extended to all causes, 
whether civil or criminal, except capital offences and questions 
of feudal law 2 . He was assisted by a notary, elected at the same 
time and in the same manner as himself, and by two counsellors, 
one a jurisconsult and the other a public merchant, nominated 
by the Anziani of Pisa. There also appears to have been a local 
Council or Senate (consilium senatus) which was probably com- 
posed of members of the colony. The Pisan quarter possessed 
its own church, in which Pisan clergy officiated ; its own bake- 
house, bath, and sometimes also its own mill; houses for the 
habitation of the merchants and their dependents, and naturally 
also for their magistrates; its own shops and magazines. By 
the grant of Conrad of Montferrat the colonists further acquired 
rural possessions, the so-called casalia in the neighbourhood of 
Tyre and of Acre 3 ; but it was only by the grant of a sovereign 
prince that such acquisitions were possible. In a feudal state 
the possession of land necessarily entailed personal military 

1 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, vol. 1, pp. 334, 335; Breve pisani communis 
MCCLXXXVI, lib. 1, rubr. 177. 

2 See Muller, op. cit., Illustrazioni, pp. 378, 379, and Doc. xxiii, p. 27: 
" Concedo ut omnes Pisani et qui Pisanorum nomine censentur tarn scapuli 
quam burgenses seu etiam milites et comites seu cujuscumque conditionis 
laici in Pisanorum curia judicentur de omnibus causis et factis et foris- 
factionibus que dici vel excogitari possunt, preterquam de feodis et assisiis 
et que ad feoda et assisias pertinent, de quibus omnibus in dominorum curia 
judicentur. De nulla a ut em alia re Pisan us judicetur in regali curia in Tyro 
et ejus partibus, nee etiam in toto regno." 

3 Ibid., Doc. xxvii, xxvin, P. 1, pp. 33, 34, and Illustrazioni, p. 408; Dal 
Borgo, Dipl. pisani, pp. 104-108. 



ii2 PISAN COLONIES [ch. 

service, and it was but natural that the law should forbid the 
alienation of realty to ecclesiastics and to commercial com- 
munities : gens cTIglise ou de relegion ou de comunes. The Italian 
merchant who desired to acquire real estate could only do so 
by abandoning his rights as a colonist and becoming a subject 
of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. If he was to hold realty at all, 
he must hold it of the king as his burgess — come son bourgeois 1 . 
Such lands and tenements, however, as the colonists possessed 
by royal gift they possessed absolutely, and free from any tax 
or service; they were probably bound to contribute to the de- 
fence of the cities in which they lived; but that obligation had 
nothing feudal about it; the Pisan colonists remained citizens 
of Pisa, the allies, not the vassals, of the princes of Syria 2 . 

From the very beginning of the Holy War, there had been 
those among the crusaders who regarded the conquest of Egypt 
as the surest means of securing the dominion of the Christians 
in Syria. Even before the siege of Jerusalem, voices had been 
raised at the Council of Ramleh in favour of an immediate 
march on Alexandria; and when, in 1163, Amalric of Ascalon 
succeeded his brother Baldwin III, he resolved no longer to 
postpone an enterprise which every year rendered more in- 
evitable. Though the kings of Jerusalem had established a naval 
service of their own and maintained arsenals in Tyre and Acre 3 , 
they were still largely dependent on the fleets of the Italian 
republics 4 , and it was but natural that Amalric should do all in 

1 Miiller, op. cit. p. 379. Compare also Doc. ix, p. 11, from which we 
learn that, after Amalric had granted and confirmed to the Pisans spatium 
Mud terre, quod est supra portum Tyri, inter civitatis domos et aquam portus, 
they still had to buy out a private owner: Propter hanc libertatem Pisani 
Petro, siniscalco Archiepiscopi, quadringintos bisancios dederunt, quatinus do- 
mum suam quam in eadem terra edificatam habuit auferret...." Had they pur- 
chased the house anterior to the royal grant, they would have acquired no 
legal title. Under the feudal system the fief of the feudatory was not his 
own to alienate it as he would; he had but an estate in it, and any attempt 
to alienate it without the consent of his lord — sanz Votroi de son seignor, et 
autrement que par V assise ou Vusage dou reaume de Jerusalem — would simply 
have operated to work an escheat. 

2 Compare Volpe, Studi suite istituzioni comunali a Pisa, etc. op. cit. p. 220. 

3 Archer and Kingsford, The Crusades, op. cit. p. 364. 

4 Thus Jacques de Vitry declared that the Italians "Terrae Sanctae valde 
sunt necessarii, non solum in praeliando, sed in navali exercitio, in merci- 



ix] PISAN COLONIES 113 

his power to retain the goodwill of the Pisans. To this end he 
granted and confirmed to them a piece of land situated "above 
the harbour of Tyre, between the houses of the city and the 
waters of the harbour 1 ." In return, they sent their consul 
Burgense with ten galleys (Roncioni says forty) to join in the 
attack on Alexandria. "And," says Marangone, "they made 
castles and divers fortresses (moenia) and engines of war round 
about the said city, and approved themselves valiant above the 
rest in the siege thereof.... Wherefore the Pisans had great 
praise beyond all other folk through all the land of Egypt and 
of Syria." Alexandria surrendered in August, 1167, and the 
king sent a special embassy to announce his victory to his allies 
and to ask for further assistance. The envoy reached Pisa in 
January, 1168, but, involved as they were in hostilities with 
Genoa and Lucca, the Pisans excused themselves 2 . They had 
long traded with Egypt, where they seem to have paid lower 
duties than other Christian merchants ; they possessed a bazaar 
in Alexandria, and, in 1153, they obtained one in Cairo 3 ; while 
so completely was their crusading zeal subordinated to their de- 
sire for gain that they made no scruple about selling arms and 
contraband of war to the infidel 4 . In these circumstances, we 

moniis et peregrinis et victualibus deportandis." See Muller, op. cit. pp. 370, 

37i. 

1 Muller, op. cit., Doc. ix, p. 11; Dal Borgo, Diplomi pisani, p. 90. The 
date is 15th March, 1165. 

2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 51; Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 356. See also Muller, 
op. cit. pp. 385 seq., where all the authorities are cited and discussed. 

3 Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 508, 509, and Amari, Dipl. Arabi, there cited. In 
this connection, Mrs Janet Ross (The Story of Pisa, op. cit. p 18) tells us 
that the Pisans " bargained indiscriminately for privileges with Christians or 
with Moslems, obtaining from the Moslem ruler of Egypt a free market in 
Alexandria and the right of building warehouses and a court of law at Cairo. 
They also secured the site for afondaco, or exchange, a free market and their 
own court of justice as far east and inland as the city of Babylon." The 
phraseology of the last sentence is unfortunate, as the ignorant reader may 
not improbably think that the Babylon referred to by Mrs Ross is Babylon 
of Assyria. For the mediaeval Italian Babilonia, of course, meant either 
Egypt, or, more frequently, Old Cairo (Fostdt). See Amari, Storia dei 
Musulmani, op. cit. in Index, s.v. "Babilonia," and Muller, op. cit., Doc. xn, 
p. 15, where both Babilonia (Fostdt) and Caharia (Cairo) are mentioned. 
Compare also 27 Decamerone, x, 9 ; I Fioretti di S. Francesco, cap. xxiv (p. 38 
of my translation), and Fazio degli Uberti, II Dittamondo, lib. vi, cap. 1, 2. 
It would, of course, be easy to multiply examples. 

4 Thus in the privilege which he granted to the Pisans, in 1156 (see p. 108 

H. 8 



ii4 PISAN COLONIES [ch. 

can readily understand that they may have thought it hardly 
worth their while to give any further help to Amalric ; but they 
speedily changed their minds when, in September, 1169, he 
granted them liberty of commerce in all the territory which 
God should give him in Egypt ; their own court, church, bake- 
house, mill and baths in Fostat (Babilonia), Cairo and Rosetta, 
and finally, a thousand byzants out of the royal customs (in 
funda mea), either in Fostat or Cairo, payable annually until he 
should have established them with full commercial privileges 
in Alexandria, Damietta and Tamnis 1 . As a result of this con- 
cession, they took part in the expedition of 1170, "cum galeis 
et quibusdam militibus et sagitariis 2 ." Their hopes were, how- 
ever, doomed to disappointment: the Christians did not con- 
quer Egypt, and the only real advantage which the Pisans ob- 
tained in return for their services to Amalric was the diploma 
of May, 1 168, given "pro bono servitio quod in obsidione 
Alexandrie Pisani mihi exhibuerunt," and in virtue of which they 
were enabled to establish themselves at Acre 3 . Already one of 
the principal emporia of Syria after the loss of Jerusalem, Acre 
became the seat of government and the centre of all the com- 
merce of the kingdom 4 . There the Pisans acquired a piece of 
ground on which to build a church, and there they were granted 
the coveted curia or vicecomiiatus 5 . In August, 1182, the privi- 
lege of Amalric was confirmed by Baldwin IV, who further 
gave them a street leading down to the harbour in which to 
construct an arcade (voltas) 6 . In the same year they purchased 
two houses in Tripoli 7 , adjoining a house which they already 

supra), Baldwin III, after promising them protection, "tarn in personis quam 
rebus eorum," inserted the following exception: "Excipio tamen eos quos 
mei homines invenerunt portantes ferrum aut lignamen aut picem seu arma 
ad vendendum in terra Egypti...." 

1 Miiller, op. cit., Doc. xu, p. 15; Muratori, Antiquitates , II, 907; Dal 
Borgo, Dipl. pisani, pp. 92, 93. 2 Marangone, ubi cit., p. 54. 

3 Miiller, op. cit., Doc. xi, p. 14; Dal Borgo, Dipl. pisani, pp. 91, 92. 

4 As to the enormous commercial importance of Acre, see Miiller, op. 
cit. pp. 391 seq., and especially the documents published on pp. 393, 394. 

5 "Concedo etiam ei [Communi Pisarum] ibidem curiam contra omnes 
homines me excepto " 

6 Muratori, Antiquitates, II, 909; Dal Borgo, Dipl. pisani, p. 96; Miiller, 
op. cit., Doc. xix, p. 23. 

7 Bonaini, Dipl. pisani, pp. 84-86; Miiller, op. cit., Doc. xx, p. 24. 



ix] PISAN COLONIES 115 

possessed there — the gift of Count Raymond to the Cathedral 
and Archbishop of Pisa in 1179 1 . Thus, in less than a century 
from the expedition under Daibert, they had colonies in Lao- 
dicea, Antioch, Tripoli, Tyre, Acre, Jaffa, and probably also in 
Jerusalem and Caesarea 2 . 

Neither was it in the East alone that the Pisans possessed 
colonies. They seem to have enjoyed a larger share of the trade 
of Morocco than any other Italian state and possibly than all 
the other Italian states together. In 11 67 they had already 
established fondachi at Zawila, and ere long they obtained foot- 
hold in Bona, Tripoli, Sfax, Bugia, etc. 3 . In Messina they had 
consuls and a fondaco*; at Cagliari in Sardinia there was a 
numerous Pisan colony 5 , and in southern France they estab- 
lished themselves in various cities, both on the sea-coast and 
on the banks of the Rhone and its tributaries : at Saint Gilles, 
at Frejus, at Narbonne, and especially at Montpellier. There we 
find a "domus Pisanorum" in which, in 1177, Ildebrando, 
"Pisanorum Consul et in Provincia legatus," signed a treaty 
between Montpellier and Pisa 6 . In the quarter of Arizica there 
existed a special hospice (albergaria) for the entertainment of 
Provencals sojourning in Pisa 7 : an almost necessary comple- 
ment to extensive commercial relations in an age when public 
inns did not exist. 

If the story of Pisan colonization is, for the most part, a sordid 

1 Dal Borgo, Dipt, pisani, p. 95 ; Muller, op. cit., Doc. xv, p. 17. 

2 That the Pisans possessed property in Jerusalem and Caesarea may be 
inferred from a document of 1156, which speaks of the differences that had 
arisen between them and the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, the clergy of Caesarea 
and the Abbot of S. Maria de Latina: "...querelas...de honoribus suis contra 
dominum Hierosolimitanum patriarcham et clericatum Caesariae et Abbatem 

et monacos Sanctae Mariae de Latina " See Tronci, op. cit. p. 91; Dal 

Borgo, Dipl. pisani, p. 87; Muller, op. cit., Doc. v, p. 7, and compare Main, 
op. cit. p. 57. 

3 Volpe, op. cit. p. 220; Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 509-511. 

4 In the Arch, di Stato in Pisa, Perg. Certosa, 9 Ott., 1190, there is a docu- 
ment which was drawn "nell' ospizio dei Consoli dei Pisani di Messina." 
Volpe, op. cit. p. 221, n. 2. 

5 Thus in the treaty of 121 2 we read of "Consules hominum Pisarum et 
ejus districtus existentium in Karali." 

6 Germain, Hist, du commerce de Montpellier, 1, 113, 234. seq., 395, cited 
by Volpe, op. cit. p. 221, n. 6. 

7 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, op. cit. vol. 1, p. 15. 

8—2 



n6 PISAN COLONIES [ch. ix 

chronicle of commercialism and greed, the pages on which it is 
written are indelibly watermarked with patriotism and valour. 
No war was ever waged nor any colony planted for material 
ends alone. Not the cry of "New markets'* merely, but the 
adventurous heart of the race, lured on by the magic of the 
sea, its receding horizons, its danger and its change, spread the 
glory and the terror of the Pisan name from the shores of Syria 
to the Pillars of Hercules 1 . 

1 See J. A. Cramb, Origins and Destiny of Imperial Britain (Murray, 1915), 
p. 115. 



CHAPTER THE TENTH 
FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 

On the 4th of March, 1152, Frederick Barbarossa, nephew of 
the late king and son of Frederick Duke of Suabia, was elected 
Emperor at the Diet of Frankfurt, and crowned in the same 
month at Aix-la-Chapelle. Allied through his mother to the 
Guelfs of Bavaria, and anxious to put an end to the enmity 
which existed between the families of Guelf and Hohenstaufen, 
he began his reign by promising to secure the Duchy of Bavaria 
for Henry the Lion, and by investing Henry's uncle, Count 
Guelf, with the Marquisate of Tuscany and the Duchy of 
Spoleto. Envoys were sent to Pope Eugenius III and to all 
Italy announcing his election, and, six months later, at the Diet 
of Wiirzburg, Robert of Capua, and other seigniors of Apulia, 
who had been despoiled of their territories by Roger of Sicily, 
presented themselves before the Emperor, beseeching justice 
and aid. Frederick promised to reinstate them, and ordered all 
the feudatories of the German kingdom to make ready to follow 
him to Italy, within two years at the furthest. In the autumn of 
1 154 he appeared on the plains of Roncaglia on the Po at the 
head of a great army. 

It was a very ancient feudal custom that the kings of Italy 
should summon all the vassals of the kingdom to a parlamentum 
at Roncaglia. The assembly was not only a solemn recognition 
of regal authority and a general review of the forces of the state ; 
it was also a great court of justice, a supreme tribunal, before 
which all disputes between feudatory and feudatory, all doubt- 
ful and obscure questions which an imperfect legislation multi- 
plied indefinitely, were brought for decision. For where could 
men hope to find a higher judge than the sovereign in whom 
were united all the powers of the state? In October, 1154, 
however, far graver issues had to be determined. Side by side 



n8 FREDERICK BARBAROSSA [ch. 

with the marquises, counts and barons, the consuls of the com- 
munes appeared before the Imperial tribunal, and the former 
demanded justice against the latter on the ground of usurpations 
committed by the cities, not only against themselves, but also 
to the prejudice of the Imperial authority. The decision of the 
Emperor was a foregone conclusion. He was, for all practical 
purposes, both plaintiff and judge. Yet, such is the reverence 
for institutions consecrated by immemorial usage that, though 
many of the representatives of the cities might have refused to 
recognize the sovereign, none of them dreamed of taking ex- 
ception to the judge. In the Emperor they saw not only the 
head of the feudal hierarchy, the official representative of one 
of the noblest ideals to which mankind has ever aspired 1 , but 
also the recognized symbol of that unity of civilized humanity 
which was believed to exist in such a way as to underlie and 
almost reduce to insignificance national, racial or local differ- 
ences. "There is," wrote Engelbert, Abbot of Admont, "only 
one commonwealth of all Christian folk; therefore, there will 
be of necessity one only head and king of that commonwealth 2 .'* 
The authority of the Emperor, as Emperor, was above and 
apart from his authority as a great feudal sovereign. "He was 
to kings as the Pope is to bishops: and we know that the 
Pope stands aloof in the ecclesiastical system of ranks. To say 
even that he holds the highest rank is to misrepresent the 
mediaeval conception. The Pope is outside all ranks. And so 
also the Emperor stood in an absolutely unique relation, both 
to the source of all power who is God, and to the kings of the 
earth 3 ." His authority extended in some ill-defined way even 

1 Feudalism was at its highest an ideal of service, and the duties of property 
were more considered than its rights. William Morris represented the revo- 
lution of John Ball and mediaeval Socialism in saying that " no man is good 
enough to be another man's master." The ideal Feudalism, on the contrary, 
held the no less noble gospel that "no man is too good to be another man's 
servant." The conception was that of a state "in which every man knew his 
place and the higher rank held its place by service to all its dependants." 
See C. D. Burns, Political Ideals, their nature and development (Oxford Uni- 
versity Press, 191 5), p. 121. 

2 De Ortu Progressu et Fine Imperii Romani, cited by Bryce, The Holy 
Roman Empire (London, 1906), p. 98 n. 

3 Burns, op. cit. p. 107. 



x] FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 119 

to England, where he certainly exercised no feudal jurisdiction 1 ; 
and where, as in Italy, he was both Emperor and suzerain, his 
sovereignty was absolute. All those who exercised authority, 
kings, feudatories, counts, marquises, heads of communes, con- 
suls, were in theory only his delegates. He was the sole lord, 
the sole master of the lives and property of his subjects; the 
soil, the waters of the lakes and rivers, the shores of the sea, 
were inalienably vested in him alone ; he might grant the use of 
them, an estate in them, but never the absolute dominion. 
"All that the most submissive jurists of Rome had ever ascribed 
to their monarchs was directly transferred to the Caesarian 
majesty who had inherited the name." Frederick himself enter- 
tained no misgivings as to his rights ; by the rest of the world 
they were not denied, and they were accepted in fervent faith 
by his German and Italian partisans 2 . 

The position of the representatives of the communes at Ron- 
caglia was one of extraordinary difficulty. They were vaguely 
conscious that, if the letter of the law was against them, justice 
was on their side; that those actions which Frederick called 
usurpations were, in fact, simply the vindication of natural 
rights ; but none of them dared, perhaps none of them knew 
how, to formulate such an idea. For them feudalism was an 
inevitable environment; they even thought of the Almighty 
Himself in terms of feudalism, and with the feudal system, as 
a system, they had no kind of quarrel. On the contrary, their 
highest ambition was to obtain for their respective communes 
admission to the feudal fold 3 . How then could they consistently 
oppose the commands of him who "held direct from God," the 
very head and crown of feudalism ? To resist one who, in ad- 
dition to the power to enforce his will, had at least the appear- 
ance of right on his side, might seem an almost hopeless enter- 
prise; to yield, on the other hand, meant the renunciation of 
communal existence, the loss of all that the citizens had won 
in two centuries of continual struggle. 

1 Bryce, op. cit. pp. 183-185. 

2 Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, op. cit. pp. 239-242; Bryce, op. cit. p. 170. 

3 Compare my A History of Perugia, op. cit. pp. 47, 48. 



120 FREDERICK BARBAROSSA [ch. 

The envoys of Pisa and of Genoa were well received 1 ; the 
Emperor had need of their fleets; but from the Lombard cities, 
and from Milan in particular, he demanded unqualified sub- 
mission. On the 5th of December he published a decree where- 
by he sanctioned and confirmed the Constitution promulgated 
by Lothair, concerning the division and alienation of feuds 2 , 
which he declared to be retrospective in its operation. No pre- 
scription might be alleged against it, and any attempt to evade 
its provisions worked a forfeiture of the feud 3 . Thus, by a single 
stroke of the pen, the cities were deprived of all their acquisi- 
tions and the feudatories reinstated in all their original rights. 

The principle laid down, Frederick proceeded to put it into 
practice. The task of re-establishing his authority appeared to 
offer no insuperable difficulty; the cities were divided among 
themselves ; and he, no doubt, confidently expected to subdue all 
Lombardy in a single campaign. The friends of Milan were the 
first to be attacked, and, after destroying Asti and Chieri, he sat 
down before Tortona. The citizens defended themselves heroic- 
ally for two months but were finally forced to surrender, and 
Tortona was demolished. The magnitude of the undertaking 
had, however, now become apparent; the punishment of Milan 
was postponed to a more convenient season. On the 17th of 
April, 1 155, Frederick assumed the iron crown at Monza. He 
celebrated Whitsuntide at Bologna and then passed southward 
through Tuscany to his coronation at Rome. The Pisans, who> 
in spite of the gracious reception they had received at Roncaglia, 
had been hastily fortifying their city with wooden walls and 
towers pro timore Frederici regis Romani venientis*, were ordered 
to get ready their fleets for the expedition against the Normans 5 ; 
and it was probably due to the good offices of the Emperor that 
peace was at last made with Lucca 6 . So long as the Pisans were 

1 Marangone, ubicit. p. 15; Caffaro, Annates Ianuenses (edition Belgrano), 

PP- 38,39. 

2 P. 102 supra. 

3 M.G.S. T. iv (Legum, n), p. 96; Santini, op. cit. p. 55. 

4 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 17; Sardo, ubi cit. p. 83; Tronci, Annali pisani, 
ad ann. 11 54. 

5 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad ann. 
8 See p. 106 supra. 



x] FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 121 

distracted by hostilities on land, they could not put forth all 
their energies in his service. 

In February, 1154, Roger of Sicily had passed away and had 
been succeeded by his son William I. In December, Anas- 
tasius IV, after occupying the Papal throne for something less 
than eighteen months, had been succeeded by Hadrian IV; and 
the new Pope, Barbarossa and Manuel Comnenus leagued 
themselves together against William. It seems that the Pisans, 
at the instigation of the Emperor, intrigued successfully with 
the Fatimite court of the Sultan of Egypt to sever the friendly 
relations which had heretofore existed between him and the 
Normans 1 ; William was excommunicated and the barons of 
Apulia rose in insurrection. Nevertheless, the league en- 
countered serious obstacles. The policy of Barbarossa was not 
such as to conciliate the maritime republics ; and without their 
aid the enterprise could not be carried out. The assumption by 
Count Guelf of the title of "princeps Sardiniae, Marchio Tus- 
ciae et Corsicae," etc., must have created uneasiness both in 
Genoa and Pisa 2 , while the Genoese were still further alienated 
by the Imperial claim to absolute sovereignty in Italy. They had 
no mind for an alliance which might ere long be converted into 
servitude 3 . The Venetians, in addition to their fear of Frederick 4 , 

1 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 218, citing the learned monograph of G. B. Siracusa, 
// Regno di Guglielmo I (Palermo, 1895). We know that, in 11 54, the Pisans 
sent ambassadors to the Sultan of Egypt to exculpate themselves from an 
accusation of piracy, and that they were granted afondaco and other commer- 
cial privileges in Alexandria on the understanding that they should abstain 
from favouring the kingdom of Jerusalem, and should convey to Egypt the 
merchandise its inhabitants most needed: wood for building purposes, iron 
and pitch. Compare p. 113, n. 4 supra. I believe that Amari {Storia dei 
Musulmani, etc., op. cit. in, 465, 466) was the first to conjecture that the 
rupture between the Sultan and the Normans was due to Pisan influence. 

2 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad ann. 1153; Volpe, op. cit. p. 155. Upon 
what grounds the Emperor based his claim to Corsica and Sardinia it is 
difficult to decide, but it is probable that it was believed that they formed 
part of the inheritance of the Countess Matilda (see Besta, op. cit. 1, 113), 
and, in any case, the rights inherent in him as universal sovereign might, 
notwithstanding the Donation of Louis the Pious, be held to constitute a 
sufficient title. 

3 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 219. See also Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, op. cit. 
pp. 244-249. 

4 Cronaca Altinate, in Arch. Stor. It. S. 1, T. vm, p. 159 (at bottom). 



122 FREDERICK BARBAROSSA [ch. 

were alarmed at the prospect of the transformation of the Adri- 
atic into a Greek lake and resolutely refused to link their for- 
tunes with those of the two Emperors 1 . In October, 1155, the 
partial co-operation of Genoa was at last obtained by the con- 
cession of what she had so long and vainly desired: Con- 
stantinopoli embolum et scalas, cum commercio et omni iure in eis 
pertinentibus sicut Pisani habent 2 ; but it was then too late. 
Shortly after his coronation (18th June), the increasing heat and 
the consequent mortality among his followers compelled 
Frederick to hurry northward. Manuel Comnenus and Hadrian 
were left to continue the struggle alone. The battle of Brindisi 
(28th May, 1 156), followed by the loss of Bari, extinguished their 
hopes of success. In June the Pope granted the triple investi- 
ture of Sicily, Apulia and Capua to the Norman king, and in 
October Genoa entered into a treaty with William, whereby she 
obtained special privileges in Sicily and the exclusion of the 
Provencals from all the ports of the kingdom 3 . 

The diametrically opposite policy pursued by Genoa and 
Pisa from this time forward was no doubt largely due to their 
respective geographical positions. Both of them aspired to 
maritime dominion, and when the Emperor laid claim to the 
great islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea and to Southern Italy, both 
of them were confronted with the same problems ; but the fact 
that Pisa was forced to divide her energies, to wage war on land 
as well as on water, made her situation a very different one 
from that of her rival The constant hostility of Lucca and the 
frequent hostility of Florence rendered the support and co- 
operation of the Emperor well-nigh indispensable to her; 
whereas Genoa, being, as we have seen, strategically an island, 
could very well do without them. When Frederick demanded 
tribute and hostages from the Genoese, they refused them on the 
ground of the virtually insular character of their city: "cum de 
terra imperii non habeant unde vivere possint vel se aliquo 

1 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 220; Hodgson, Early Hist, of Venice, pp. 264, 265. 

2 See the documents published by Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, op. cit. 
pp. 411-413. 

3 Ibid. pp. 414-417. 



x] FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 123 

modo retinere;...fidelitatem igitur solam debent habitatores 
Ianue, et non possunt de reliquo appellari 1 ." 

Having chosen her course, Pisa pursued it resolutely. "She 
set herself unhesitatingly on the side of the Emperor, posing as 
the defender of his supreme majesty in Tuscany"; and when, 
in 1 158, he once more entered Lombardy, she sent the noblest 

I of her sons to fight beneath his banners. For his sake she re- 
nounced her ancient allegiance to the Church and even risked 
the shipwreck of her commercial interests in Constantinople, 
In those days a tradition of Imperial policy was established 
which permeated the whole life of the city and informed with 
its spirit the very character of the race. What wonder if, as 
Marangone declares, "Pisana civitas, et legati ejus, honorem 
habuit super omnes civitates Tusciae"? 

Meanwhile, the departure of the Emperor had been the signal 
for renewed hostilities. The Count Guido Guerra had many 
injuries to avenge. While passing unsuspectingly through Flor- 
ence, his mother, the Countess Imellia had been arrested and 
detained for several days 2 ; and when he himself had accom- 
panied the Emperor Conrad to Palestine, the Florentines, in 
violation of their sworn engagements, had given his strong 
castle of Monte di Croce to the flames 3 . The Imperial Con- 
stitution of the 5th December, 1154, however, encouraged him 
to hope that his hour of revenge was at hand; and, in 1155, he 
entered into alliance with the Sienese. On the 4th of April, in 
the following year, he granted them an eighth part of the newly 
constructed fortress of Poggibonsi {Montis qui dicitur Bonizi*), 
and, on the same day, the Marturensi swore fealty to the com- 
mune 5 . On the 9th the Florentines who had advanced against 

1 Caffaro, Annates Ianuenses (edition cited), pp. 50, 51. 

2 Sanzanome, Gesta Florentinorum, p. 129. 

3 Ibid. p. 130. As a result, Eugenius III placed Florence and its contado 
under an interdict, from which, however, the territories of the Count Guido 
and his vassals were excepted (September, 1148). Santini, op. cit. p. 51. 

4 R. Arch, di Stato in Siena, Caleffo Vecchio, c te 2, 2 E ; Malavolti, Historia 
de' fatti e guerre de' Sanest (Venetia, 1599), c ta 30; Tommasi, Historie di 
Siena, Parte 1, lib. in, p. 141. 

5 R. Arch, di Stato in Siena, Caleffo Vecchio, c ta 8*. 



124 FREDERICK BARBAROSSA [ch. 

the place, were defeated by the allied forces of the Count and 
the Sienese 1 . Nor were the other Tuscans passive spectators of 
the conflict. The young Count Alberto of Prato, who had been 
reinstated in all his ancestral domains by an Imperial diploma 
of the 4th of June, 1155 2 , was no longer minded to submit to 
Florentine usurpations and leagued himself with the Pisans 
and the Pistoiesi. His vassals of Prato put themselves under the 
protection of Florence; Lucca, of course, sided against Pisa. 
Only in 1158, when the news came that the Emperor was once 
more about to cross the Alps, did the combatants begin to think 
of peace. The negotiations lasted for nearly three months, June, 
July and August; and then, on the Vigil of the Assumption, a 
truce was proclaimed between Pisa and her allies (the Count 
Guido Guerra, the Sienese, the Pistoiesi and the Count Alberto) 
on the one part, and Lucca and her allies (the Florentines, the 
Pratesi and the cattani of Garfagnana) on the other. On the 
following day, through the initiative of the Consuls of Pisa and 
Lucca, peace for twenty years was made between the allies of 
either city. "De qua tregua et pace," says Marangone, "Pisani 
magnum habuerunt honorem et laudem et gloriam per omnes 
eorum amicitias, et bonam famam per totam Tusciam 3 ." With 
what sincerity the Lucchesi had entered into the truce may be 
judged from the fact that, scarcely more than a year later, they 
signed a treaty with Genoa providing for united action in the 
eventuality of a w r ar with Pisa (10th September, 1159) 4 . 

The quarrel between the Church and the Empire came to a 
head in 1159. Frederick's departure for Germany, in June, 
1 155, had destroyed at one blow all the hopes that Hadrian had 

1 Santini, op. cit. p. 58. 

2 Ibid. p. 55. By this privilege the Florentines were deprived of the 
jurisdiction which they had arrogated to themselves over the territories of 
the Alberti within their contado; and the Counts once more became ex- 
clusively dependent on the Emperor for all their fiefs, in whatsoever diocese 
or contado they might be situated. 

3 Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 19, 20. Compare Bonaini, Statuti inediti, vol. I 
(Breve Consulum), p. 28. 

4 Santini, op. cit. p. 66 n.; Volpe, op. cit. p. 162, citing Atti Accad. lucch. 
X, p. 84. 



x] FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 125 

built upon his coming. Not only had he abandoned the expe- 
dition against the Normans, but he had failed to reduce Rome 
to subjection. The Pope was still in exile 1 ; and it is possible that 
his change of front (June, 1156) was due almost as much to 
indignation at Frederick's desertion as to the hopelessness of 
prolonging the contest. If, however, Hadrian was incensed 
against Frederick, Frederick was even more incensed against 
Hadrian. The investiture of William I not only conferred the 
kingdom of Sicily upon an enemy, but was a deliberate usurpa- 
tion of the suzerainty claimed by the Empire. Next followed 
the quarrel about the use of the word beneftcium 2 , and Hadrian's 
childish anger because his name was placed after that of the 
Emperor in one of Frederick's letters 3 . The old controversy 
concerning investitures was revived in a slightly different form, 
and the Pope was preparing to launch the thunders of the 
Church against his adversary when he died at Anagni, on the 
1st of September, 1159. A papal schism followed. Barbarossa 
supported the Antipope who assumed the name of Victor IV; 
and Alexander III, the canonically elected Pontiff, was forced 
to take refuge in France (1162). 

The end of the insincere and factitious alliance between the 
Empire and the Papacy placed the Tuscan communes in a diffi- 
cult position. Heretofore, they had not hesitated to send their 
levies to the assistance of Frederick. Not only Pisans, but 
Sienese, Lucchesi and, it would seem, even Florentines, had 
taken part in the siege of Milan (1158 4 ). Indeed, the main 
object of the Emperor's diplomatic activities in Tuscany, from 
the time when he passed through that province on his way to 
his coronation at Rome, had been to make peace between the 
various cities, in order that he might be able to count upon their 
co-operation. Their bishops, however, without exception, sided 

1 He was only enabled to enter Rome, in November, 1156, through the 
good offices of William I. See Gregorovius, op. cit. vol. II, lib. viii, can. v, 
§3,P-548. 

2 " Si maiora beneficia excellentia tua de manu nostra suscepisset " See 

Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad ann. 1157. 

3 "Fridericus Dei gratia Roman us imperator semper Augustus Adriano 
Ecclesiae Catholicae summo pontifici." 

* Volpe, op. cit. p. 161 ; Santini, op. cit. p. 62. 



126 FREDERICK BARBAROSSA [ch. 

with the legitimate Pope Alexander, a Sienese by birth, and, 
previous to his* elevation to the Papacy, a canon of Pisa 1 . No 
Tuscan bishop was present at the Council of Pavia 2 , where the 
Emperor recognized the Antipope Victor (February, 1160) ; and 
it is probable that the majority of the citizens sympathized with 
their bishops. The great consular families who monopolized the 
government were thus faced with the prospect of a serious di- 
vergence of opinion between themselves and the rest of the 
citizens. The consuls, however, were not disposed to be guided 
by sentimental considerations. In most of the cities, the juris- 
dictional contests with the heads of the dioceses had already 
become sufficiently troublesome, and the opportunity of strip- 
ping the bishops of their temporal authority was too good to be 
neglected. At the same time, the pretensions of the Emperor 
afforded grave cause for apprehension, since, if he succeeded in 
exercising the prerogatives to which he laid claim, the stream of 
communal progress would be turned backward and dammed at 
its source 3 . The consuls, therefore, adopted an attitude of 
watchful inactivity, which might well appear the result of 
feebleness and indecision, did not subsequent events prove 
that it was, in fact, dictated by the shrewdest foresight. 

At Pisa the Archbishop Villano was an ardent partisan of 
Alexander III, who, during his residence in the city, had won 
golden opinions from all classes; and when, early in 11 60, an 
unfortunate prelate came to Pisa on his way to the Council of 
Pavia, he was grievously maltreated by the mob 4 . The consuls, 
on the other hand, though they were determined not to break 
with the Emperor, had as yet not committed themselves with 
regard to the ecclesiastical question, and, on the 20th of March, 
they were still able to act in unison with the Archbishop, with 
whom and with the Count Gherardo Gherardesca, they ap- 

1 See Ugurgieri, Le Pompe Sanest (Pistoia, 1649), P. 1, p. 13. 

2 Volpe, op. cit. p. 165, n. i. 

3 The Constitutio pads of November, 1158, had made the position taken 
up by the Emperor absolutely plain. If there had been any doubt about his 
pretensions before, there was no longer the slightest room for misconception. 
See Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad arm., and Santini, op. cit. pp. 62 et seq. 

4 Volpe, op. cit. p. 165, n. 2, citing M.G.H. (JLegum), S. iv, T. 1, p. 268; 
Encyclica concili: febr. 1160. 



xj FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 127 

peared at the Diet of Borgo S. Genesio as the representatives 
of the commune 1 . That Diet had been called together by the 
Marquis Guelf: "Guelfus dux Spoleti marchio Tusciae,' , as 
Marangone styles him, carefully omitting his further title of 
"rector" or "princeps Sardiniae." Invested by Frederick in 
the first year of his reign 2 , he had consented to receive a second 
investiture at the hands of Hadrian 3 , and, although he had been 
present at the Council of Pavia, he had, perhaps, already de- 
cided to return to the traditional policy of his house and to es- 
pouse the cause of the Church against the Hohenstaufen. His 
ambiguous position probably served him well, when, strong in 
his double investiture, Imperial and Papal, he convoked the 
Diet of S. Genesio, and saw all the great feudatories of Tuscany 
as well as the representatives of the cities assemble at his sum- 
mons. Among those who refused to take the oath of fealty at 
S. Genesio were the Pisans; but they invited him to Pisa to 
receive it. He came thither on the 26th of March and was 
welcomed "cum magno honore et triumpho et processione " ; 
and there the Pisans "securitatem et fidelitatem fecerunt, et 
dux pisanus (the expression is sufficiently significant) juravit 
salvare homines pisanos in personis et havere." Thereafter, on 
the 31st of March, he returned to S. Genesio to receive the 
oaths of fealty of the other cities and vassals of the Mark ; and 
all the cities did him honour and swore fealty "pro honore a 
Pisanis ei collato, et timore." Nevertheless, the Diet was dis- 
turbed by scenes of violence and bloodshed. The Count Guido, 
whom we have seen leagued with the Sienese against the 
Florentines, in 1156, had died at Monte varchi in the following 
year, and the son who succeeded him was still a boy 4 . The 
young count was present at S. Genesio with the other feu- 
datories; and, for some reason unknown to us, a quarrel arose 
between him and the Florentines and Lucchesi. His lodging 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 21 : "et ibi fuerunt Consules pisani, cum comite 
Gerardo et cum Archiepiscopo Villano Pisanae ecclesiae Sanctae Mariae." 

2 See p. 115 supra. 

3 Volpe, op. cit. p. 166, n. 1 ; Santini, op. cit. p. 67, citing Ficker, 
Forschungen, etc., 11, § 331. 

4 Santini, op. cit. p. 59, n. 1. 



128 FREDERICK BARBAROSSA [ch. 

was assailed by armed men, and his life was only saved by the 
interposition of the marquis, at whose feet he cast himself, be- 
seeching protection, The Pisans thereupon came to his aid, 
and "bellum magnum contra Lucenses et Florentinos pro adiu- 
vando comite fecerunt." They seem to have had the best of the 
fight, but, on learning that the Lucchesi were gathering rein- 
forcements, they left the Diet 1 . Apparently, there was no im- 
mediate renewal of hostilities ; but the incident must have tended 
to harden the conviction of the consuls that, compassed about 
as they were by so many enemies, their best hope of salvation 
lay in loyalty to the Emperor. In the following year two of 
their number were sent to Constantinople to negotiate "con- 
cordiam et conventionem " with Manuel, only to be met by a 
demand that they should swear not to enter into any league 
with Frederick to the detriment of Byzantium. This they abso- 
lutely refused to do, with the result that, for many years, Pisan 
colonists and merchants in Constantinople were subjected to 
sanguinary persecutions at the hands of the populace 2 . 

Meanwhile, the Archbishop Villano remained stubbornly 
loyal to Alexander, and, in 1161, near Volterra, he found means 
to have speech with Bishop Giulio of Florence, who, in defiance 
of the Imperial edict ordering the bishops to give their support 
to Victor, was almost as warm a partisan of the lawful Pope as 
Villano himself 3 . What the two prelates said to one another we 
do not know ; but no sooner was Alexander compelled to leave 
Rome than we find Villano setting forth with an armed galley 
(18th December) to meet him at Terracina 4 . There they cele- 
brated the Christmas festival together, and thence they came 
to Piombino, where Villano, among vassals who had sworn 
fealty to him, "magnum honorem domino Alexandro exhibuit." 
Any hopes which they may have entertained of entering Pisa 
were, however, dissipated on their arrival at Leghorn by the 
prompt action of the consuls who " consilium de non recipiendo 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 21, 22. 

2 Ibid. p. 26; Heyd, Histoire du Commerce du Levant, op. cit. I, 213. 

3 Volpe, op. cit. p. 167, n. 5, citing Davidsohn, Geschichte, p. 475. 

4 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 26. 



x] FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 129 

Alexandrum habuerunt, propter amorem et pavorem impera- 
toris Frederici." They therefore made all haste to Porto Venere, 
reaching Genoa on the 21st of January, 1 162. Trumpets sounded 
and bells rang, as the archbishop, the consuls and the whole 
body of the citizens magnificently "welcomed the Apostolic 
Pope, giving praise to God and exalting His Name, even as it 
is written in the Book of Psalms : 'Young men and maidens, old 
men and children, praise the name of the Lord ; for his name 
only is excellent.' And verily (says Caffaro) the name of the 
Lord was exalted on that day, when the Genoese received the 
Apostolic Alexander, in the Lord's stead 1 ." Frederick sent 
peremptory orders that the fugitive should be delivered into 
his hands ; but the Genoese indignantly refused to obey them ; 
and, on the 25th of March, Alexander pursued his journey to 
Provence. He was escorted by a Genoese fleet of twenty-five 
galleys and accompanied by the Archbisop of Milan, and by 
the Archbishop of Pisa on his own galley 2 . The further presence 
of a Sicilian galley would appear to indicate that an under- 
standing existed between the Genoese and the Normans, and 
that the maritime policy of the Italian states was already 
definitely settled. On the one side stood the Pisans, the sup- 
porters of the Emperor, on the other the Norman- Genoese 
alliance, reinforced, if not by actual treaty, at least by a com- 
mon hostility, and probably by a tacit understanding with the 
Greek Emperor. Only Venice stood aloof. She wished well to 
Alexander and she desired the ruin of Frederick, but she sus- 
pected Genoa, she suspected William, and above all the rest 
she suspected Manuel who favoured Ancona and menaced her 
dominion in the Adriatic 3 . 

The attitude which the Pisan consuls had assumed towards 
Archbishop Villano and the Pope had been forced upon them 
by the irresistible logic of circumstances. Pisan troops were 
taking part in the siege of Milan, and, in March, a triumphant 

1 Caffaro, Annales Ianuenses (edition cited), p. 63. 

2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 27. 

3 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 228; Volpe, op. cit. p. 168. Compare Hodgson, 
The Early History of Venice, op. cit. pp. 271, 272. 



130 FREDERICK BARBAROSSA [ch. 

letter from Frederick announced its surrender 1 . Next came the 
diploma of the 6th of April , glittering with splendid concessions 
and yet more splendid promises 2 . Not only was the whole 
littoral from Civitavecchia to Porto Venere granted to Pisa to- 
gether with the right to exclude hostile merchants from all the 
bays and ports of the coast, but also extensive inland territories. 
From a point not far from Empoli, her new frontiers ran through 
Torre Benni (Bastia), Canneto, Barbialla, along the course of 
the Evola to Monte Tignoso, and then, by way of Buriano, 
Querceto, Castrum Corniae (a vanished stronghold in the valley 
of the same name) and Scarlino, to Port' Ercole 3 . In addition 
to all this, half of Naples, Salerno, Messina, Palermo, including 
their ports and territories, the whole of Gaeta, Mazzara and 
Irapani were given to the Pisans in feud, "et in unaquaque alia 
civitate quam Guillelmus detinet rugam unam cum domibus 
convenientem pisanis mercatoribus." Pisan merchants were to 
be free to travel, by land or by water, through Sicily, Calabria, 
Apulia, the Principality of Capua, "et per totum imperium 
nostrum," without paying toll or custom; and the Emperor 
undertook not to make peace or truce with William without 
the consent of such of the Pisan consuls as should take part in 
the expedition. In return, the Pisans swore fealty and promised 
to send a fleet to the war against the Normans and to aid the 
Emperor if he should lay siege to Genoa. In that case, Porto 
Venere was to be taken from the Genoese and given to the 
Pisans. 

The diploma was brought to Pisa, on the 17th of April, by 
the ambassadors who had been with Frederick 4 ; and they re- 

1 Bonaini, Dipl. pisani, xvn A, pp. 39, 40. 

2 Dal Borgo, Dipl. pisani, pp. 32-39; Tronci, Annali pisani, ad ann. 

3 "Et concedimus et dam us in feodum vobis Comitatum vestro districtui 
sicut tenet turris Benni ad Arnum et ad Cannetum et inde ad Barbiallam, 
et sicut trahit ab Ebula ad Montem Tiniosum et ad Burrianum et Quercetum 
et ad Castrum Corniae, inde ad Scherlinum, et sicut trahit marina ad Portum 
Erculis ; ab alia parte fluminis Ami, sicut trahit Planesule, et comprehendit 
curia Cintoriae, et sicut trahunt confinia inter vos et lucenses usque ad 
pontem Mogioniae, et inde sicut sunt confinia districtus pisanae civitatis." 
(Compare the Breve Consilium of 11 64, in Bonaini, Statuti inediti, I, 23.) 

4 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 27: "Pisanorum legati cum consilio senatorum 
et civium ad imperatorem Fredericum mense Martii iverunt...quos Im- 



x] FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 131 

turned " cum honore et cum vexillo, dato et largito ab imperiali 
maiestate, et spada pro investitione imperatoris Frederici ha- 
benda et retinenda super omnes civitates Tusciae." The phraseo- 
logy of the annalist might almost appear to be mere rhetorical 
exaggeration were it not that we possess another Imperial 
diploma, probably attributable to this period 1 , which contains 
corresponding expressions of Frederick's goodwill towards the 
Pisans. Not only does he promise to place under the ban of the 
Empire all those who shall have the temerity to take up arms 
against them when they shall be engaged in his service, but he 
declares his intention to set the city of Pisa above all the cities 
of Italy: "ita fovere sublimare et conservare ut inter alias civi- 
tates longe vel prope positas ipsa sola obtineat principatum 2 ." 
The Pisans were, however, by no means disposed to rely 
solely upon the prestige of their Imperial alliance, and im- 
mediately took steps to possess themselves of the territories 
which had been granted them. In May Count Ildebrandino 
degli Aldobrandeschi of Soana renewed "universo populo 
pisano " the oath of fealty which he had made two years before 
"in publico parlamento pisano" to the Archbishop Villano, 
swearing "to save Pisan men, whether whole (sanos) or ship- 
wrecked, and their goods, on land and on sea, and in every place 
within his governance." Thereafter, he accompanied the Pisan 
delegates who were sent to receive oaths of his vassals through 
all the towns and villages of his dominions 3 . In the following 
month the consuls "made a great army of knights and foot- 
soldiers and archers," and went into the Valdera to tame the 
cattani of Peccioli who had long been a thorn in the side of the 
commune 4 . These feudatories were able to take the field with 
four hundred horse and three thousand foot, and their strong- 
hold of Peccioli was deemed well-nigh impregnable. " Castrum 



udivit nee vidit." 

1 Volpe, op. cit. p. 177, n. i. 

2 Bonaini, Dipl. pisam, xvi B*, p. 39. 

! 3 Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 23, 24, 28, ad ann. 1161, 1163 (Pisan style). 
4 "Quod castrum cum aliis longo tempore multas iniurias Pisanis in- 
tulerat." 

9—2 



132 FREDERICK BARBAROSSA [ch. 

erat tutissimum, vallo et muro fortissimum." Nevertheless, 
Peccioli surrendered on the Vigil of St John, and "the Pisans 
burned it with fire round about and the suburbs thereof, and 
therewithal they destroyed a great part of the walls and forti- 
fications." Next they stormed castrum Pavae (Pieve a Pitti) 
"quod erat rocca fortissima, ,, and burned it likewise. "And 
two other castles did they burn with fire ; and every other walled 
place in the Valdera even unto Volterra surrendered to the 
Pisans." Wherefore, they returned home, "cum magno 
honore," on the 27th of June. A few days later the cattani of 
Peccioli swore fealty; whereupon "the Pisan consuls gave them 
a piece of land to be holden in feud, hard by the church of 
S. Cassiano in Cinzica, that they might build them houses 
thereon," and become citizens of Pisa 1 . It is curious to note that 
neither in the Imperial diplomas nor in the conventions made 
with the Legates of the Empire is there to be found any reserva- 
tion, whether express or implied, of the rights of the feudal 
seigniors of the contado 2 '. By the privilege of the 6th of April, 
Pisa had been definitely admitted to the ranks of the Great 
Feudatories of the realm ; the lesser feudatories of her contado 
had become arriere vassals, owing her fealty and service. By 
bringing them into subjection she was actually furthering the 
policy of the Emperor. That which, in the case of the Commune 
of Florence, an unrecognized and unlawful association 3 , would 
have been flat rebellion, was, in the case of Pisa, not only lawful 
but praiseworthy. Accordingly, we find that, two years later, 
Rainald, Archbishop of Cologne, who had been sent by Frederick 
to re-order the administration of Tuscany, actively assisted the 
Pisans to carry on the good work. The enlargement of their 
contado to the south and south-east had narrowed the borders 
of the Volteranni 4 , and it is probable that obstacles had been 

1 Marangone, ubi tit. pp. 31, 32; cf. Bonaini, Statuti inediti, vol. 1 {Br. 
Consilium), p. 38, 

2 The subject is discussed at length by Prof. Volpe, op. tit. p. 172 seq. 

3 The Constitutio pads had definitely forbidden every assembly, every 
sworn association, every consorteria, whether within or without the city 
walls. See Santini, op. tit. p. 63. 

4 See Cecina, Notizie Storiche di Volterra (Volterra, Tip. Sborgi, 1900), 
p. 13. This is the only edition of the book which I possess. It is a cheap 



x] FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 133 

placed in the way of Pisan jurisdiction. Rainald, therefore, 
deputed the German " Gualdanus," comes Volterranorum, to 
accompany the consuls on circuit through the newly acquired 
territories, and to make, as it were, a personal act of transfer 
to the representatives of the commune, the new seignior 1 . 
With the consuls and the Teutonicus of Volterra was Bernardo 
Marangone, the annalist; and he faithfully records their visit 
to all the towns of the Maremma, "pro iustitiis et vindictis 
faciendis, usque ad castrum qui dicitur Scarlinum." Every- 
where they received the oath of fealty from the inhabitants, 
reconciling differences and regulating the relationships between 
the various communities 2 . 

reprint and contains none of the notes which add so much to the value of 
the work. If my memory serves me, the notes to the particular passage 
referred to are well worth reading. 

1 Volpe, op. cit. p. 179. 

2 Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 35, 36. 



CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH 

EXPULSION OF THE GENOESE FROM 
CONSTANTINOPLE 

1 he assumption by Count Guelf of the title of rector or prin- 
ceps Sardiniae had, as we have seen, given equal offence to 
Genoa and Pisa, and when, in 1158, Frederick invited them 
to convey Imperial Legates to Sardinia, they did not hesitate 
to disobey him 1 . If the occasion was vital enough, even the 
faithful Pisans knew how to separate their own policy from that 
of the Emperor; and, apparently, the only result of his attempt 
to exercise authority in Sardinia is to be found in a temporary 
rapprochement between the communes. 

In the summer of 11 60 two Pisan galleys and four saettie 
encountered two Saracen galleys on their way to Denia with a 
great Genoese merchantman which they had captured. The 
Pisans attacked, put the Saracens to flight and convoyed their 
prize to Pisa. Thereupon, ambassadors were sent from Genoa 
to ask that the ship should be given up to them "amore pacis et 
societatis. , ' Nor did they ask in vain. After taking counsel with 
the principal citizens, the consuls "navem cum toto aere pro 
amore et donatione Ianuensibus reddiderunt " ; wherefore 
they gat them home again "cum amore et laetitia, et gratias 
ingentes referendo 2 ." The incident is, of course, ignored by 
Caffaro. The very last thing that we should expect him to do 
would be to record an act of Pisan magnanimity; and, after all, 
the anecdote is only noteworthy as tending to prove that, at 
this time, the relations between the cities were not only peaceful 
but cordial. Some two months later, Costantino, Judge of 
Cagliari, who would seem to have been on very friendly terms 

1 Volpe, op. tit. p. 161 ; Manfroni, op. tit. pp. 226, 227 ; Besta, op. tit. 1, 1 14. 

2 Marangone, ubi tit. p. 23 ; Roncioni, ubi tit. p. 299. 



ch. xi] EXPULSION OF THE GENOESE 135 

with Genoa 1 , was welcomed in Pisa " cum honore." The consuls 
had sent galleys to escort him thither, and when, together with 
his consort, he set out thence on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 
the donicella, his daughter, remained behind as the honoured 
guest of the commune 2 . 

The growing good- will between the two cities was, however, 
viewed with anxiety by the Pope; and when, in January, 1162, 
Pisa closed her gates against him 3 , he determined to take steps 
to put an end to the injuries and obprobria which were being 
committed in Sardinia by those who sought to withdraw the 
island from the dominion of St Peter 4 . He made use of his 
sojourn in Genoa to arouse the latent hostility against the Pisans 
and enlisted the good offices of the archbishop to induce the 
consuls and the citizens to embark upon an enterprise which, 
by humbling the power of Pisa, would further the policy of the 
Holy See. To this end, he granted many important privileges 
to the Cathedral Church of S. Lorenzo, which, in the words of 
the annalist, "multifarie multisque modis studuit sublimare 5 ." 
His efforts were no doubt aided by other and purely secular 
causes of disagreement; but, when we recall the machinations 
of Alexander, and the part which he played in sowing discord 
between the communes, Caffaro's attribution of the war which 
resulted to the Devil would seem, to say the least of it, in 
doubtful taste 6 . 

Meanwhile, the fall of Milan and her punishment had over- 
awed men's minds, and the Genoese began to mistrust the 
protective efficacy of those walls of which their official historio- 
grapher had so recently boasted that " unless God should 
hinder it, they could withstand unharmed the shock of all Italy 
and Tuscany and the Germans 7 ." They knew that the Pisans 

1 The return of a Genoese ship " amore Ianuensium," in 1154, is evidence 
of this. See Caffaro, Annates Ianuenses (edition cited), pp. 38, 39. 

2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 33. 

3 See p. 129 supra. 

4 Besta, op. cit. 1, 117. 

5 Caffaro, Annates Ianuenses (edition cited), p. 66. 

6 "Unde diabolus, humani generis inimicus, inter Ianuenses et Pisanos... 
his temporibus fomitem seminavit discordie." 

7 Caffaro, Annates Ianuenses, p. 51. 



136 EXPULSION OF THE GENOESE [ch. 

were busily building for the Sicilian expedition 1 galleys which 
might be used against themselves. A clause in the Imperial 
diploma of the 6th of April provided for such an eventuality 2 ; 
and, at the eleventh hour, they perceived that, if they were 
attacked by the united forces of Pisa and the Emperor, the fate 
of Milan must be their fate also. They, therefore, resolved to 
humble themselves. An embassy composed of nine of their 
noblest citizens, including two of the consuls, was sent to 
Frederick at Pavia 3 ; they declared themselves ready to obey 
his commands and to swear fealty, and they promised to aid 
with their navies in the Sicilian expedition. On these terms a 
treaty was entered into, on the 9th of June, whereby, in return 
for their services, they were to receive, at the end of the war, 
the city of Syracuse with its environs, two hundred and fifty 
fiefs in the Val di Noto or in the territory of Count Simeon, a 
natural son of Roger, and in every city a street and a fondaco 
together with complete exemption from imposts. Provencal 
merchants were to be excluded from Sicily and Calabria, and 
the Venetians also, unless they first made their peace with the 
Emperor. Finally, Genoese dominion of the sea-coast from 
Monaco to Porto Venere was recognized as legitimate 4 . 

In this connection Professor Manfroni asks the pertinent 
question: "Were the Genoese acting in good faith when they 
accepted the terms? CafFaro would have us believe that they 
were, but it is exceedingly difficult to credit it. Could they, so 
jealous of the Pisans, content themselves with the single city 
of Syracuse, when half of Messina, Salerno, Naples, Palermo, 
the most important ports in the kingdom, had been promised 
to the Pisans? They had certainly heard of the Pisan treaty 
concluded two months earlier, and would never have consented 
to play a second part while the first was assumed by their hated 
rivals. Moreover, they were far too well informed of the con- 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 27: "Anno Domini mclxiii, in mense Madii. 
Pisani Consules, pro honore imperatoris Frederici et Imperii et Pisanae 
urbis, galeas xl facere incoeperunt, et per totum mensem Martium com- 
pletae fuere." 

2 See p. 130 supra. 3 Caffaro, Annales Ianuenses, p. 65. 
4 Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 229, 230, 



xi] FROM CONSTANTINOPLE 137 

ditions of Lombardy to believe in the possibility of immediate 
action against the Normans; they knew what storm was brew- 
ing in the March of Ancona, what plots against the Emperor 
were being woven in Sicily and at the court of the exiled 
Alexander III." Certain it is that their alliance with Frederick 
does not appear to have impaired their friendly relations with 
William. When, a few months later (October, 1162), all the 
Pisans in the Kingdom of Sicily were despoiled and imprisoned 
"propter magnum apparatum galearum quern pro faciendo im- 
peratoris Frederici servitio fecerunt," not a hair of a Genoese 
head was touched 1 . The good or bad faith of the Genoese was 
not, however, destined to be put to the proof, since events 
almost immediately occurred which prevented the Sicilian ex- 
pedition and liberated them from the engagements into which 
they had entered. 

A few days after the treaty of Pavia, news reached Genoa 
that the Pisans in Constantinople had taken up arms and ex- 
pelled the Genoese colony, few in numbers and but recently 
established there. The assailants had been joined by a great 
multitude of Venetians, Greeks "et aliorum iniquorum"; the 
Genoese fondaco had been sacked and a young nobleman, the 
son of a certain Ottone RufTo 2 , had been killed in cold blood. 
On the arrival of the fugitives in Genoa, the city was moved to 
fury ; twelve galleys were equipped in a single day, and, thirsting 
for revenge, the crews prepared to put out to sea. The consuls, 
however, would not hear of their departure until formal letters 
of defiance had been sent to Pisa. The text of these litterae 
diffidentiae has been preserved for us by Caffaro 3 ; and in them 
the expulsio Sardiniae and the detentio and invasio of certain 
writings are alleged as more or less proximate causes of the 
rupture. It would be interesting both from an historical and 
juridical point of view if we could ascertain the meaning of 
these phrases. Certainly, the expulsio Sardiniae can hardly be 
supposed to refer to the more or less mythical conflict which 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 31. 

2 Ottone Ruffo had been one of the consuls in 1 1 5 1 . 

3 Annates lanuenses, pp. 68, 69. 






138 EXPULSION OF THE GENOESE [ch. 

followed the defeat of Mogahid 1 . That is completely ignored 
by the Genoese chroniclers; and the expulsio complained of 
may mean nothing more than the gradual exclusion of the 
Genoese through the increasing influence of Pisa 2 . As to the 
writings which, "summa violentia," were seized and detained, 
it is less easy to offer any plausible conjecture. They may have 
contained ancient agreements between the communes, delimit- 
ing and defining their respective spheres of interest, or they may 
have been records of conventions with Sardinian judges on 
which Genoa relied as evidence of her claim to overlordship. 
Be that as it may, it is interesting to note that now, and for the 
first time, the rights of Genoa in Sardinia are based upon its 
liberatio de manibus Sarracenorum : the very grounds upon which 
Pisa rested her own title to dominion 3 . 

There is no doubt that such letters were actually sent to 
Pisa. The fact is admitted by the Pisan annalist 4 ; but the 
avenging galleys would seem to have arrived almost as soon as 
the envoys, and the Pisans, who had probably had no news of 
the disturbances in Constantinople, were completely taken by 
surprise : " Pisanis in pace commorantibus, et nullum apparatum 
triremium habentibus, Ianuenses xxv galeas habentes, diffi- 
dentiam per litteras eorumque nuntios indixerunt, et rupto 
pacis foedere, cum periurio nefandissimo guerram crudelissi- 
mam cum eis ex improviso incoeperunt." Nothing could have 
been more providential for the enemies of Frederick. Coming 
to the mouth of the Arno, the Genoese sank three great ships 
which lay at anchor there; they burned three more in Porto 
Pisano and destroyed with their mangonels the tower of the 
harbour "in the sight of all the men and women of Pisa." 
Another squadron devastated Capraia and captured many richly 
laden ships and among the rest a galley coming from Sardinia 
with the consul Bonaccorso on board. "Of the men of those 
ships and of that galley Ottone Ruffo and his associates slew 
many of the noblest to avenge the murder of his son ; and the 

1 "Pisani de tota Sardinea Ianuenses expulerunt." See p. 26 supra. 

2 See the next chapter. 3 Compare Besta, op. cit. 1, 117, 118. 
4 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 29. 



xi] FROM CONSTANTINOPLE 139 

consul Bonaccorso and many others they sent captive to Genoa 
together with the booty." Thereafter, the Genoese galleys re- 
tired to Porto Venere, the fortifications of which had been 
restored with great care a few months earlier. 

No sooner had the raiders departed than the Pisans took 
steps to protect their port against fresh attacks. They stretched a 
great chain across the mouth of the harbour " from one tower to 
the other, and they closed and reclosed the port for the pro- 
tection of mariners, and fortified and set in order the towers 
thereof." Next, they armed ten galleys and eleven saettie "ad 
modum galearum," and sent them to devastate Capo Corso. 
On their return, as they were cruising off Pianosa, they "cap- 
tured two great and very rich merchantmen coming the one 
from Syria and the other from Constantinople. Sixty-two 
Genoese they killed : some they beheaded, and others they slew 
with the sword. Thereafter, on the 12th of July, they took 
another ship coming from Sicily. The value of the merchandise 
on the said ships was more than twenty thousand pounds," or 
four times the value of the captures made by the Genoese. 
" Now, when they heard these things, the Pisans were fulfilled 
with great joy and gave praise to God. And straightway they 
made ready fourteen saettie after the manner of galleys " ; and 
the Genoese galleys which abode in Porto Venere came even 
unto the port of Populonia to give them battle ; but, when they 
drew nigh unto the Pisan fleet, they fled before it. Wherefore, 
the Pisans "returned to Pisa with honour and gladness, with 
captured ships and merchandise and with fifty-five Genoese 
prisoners." 

By taking the Pisans unawares, the Genoese had, indeed, 
gained a momentary advantage ; but, after their first unexpected 
onset, the fortune of war turned against them. The Pisans were, 
probably, in a far more favourable position than they were for 
protracted hostilities. With a view to the Sicilian expedition 
they had raised large sums by the sale of custom dues 1 ; and 

1 "Praedicti Consules duanam salis et ripam, et ferri venam pro libris 
quinque milibus quingentis in xi annis, pro galeis faciendis, et civitatis ex- 
pensis, vendiderunt." 



140 EXPULSION OF THE GENOESE [ch. 

some at least of the forty galleys which they had laid down in 
May must have been nearing completion. Neither were they 
satisfied with the punishment that they had already inflicted. 
Soon the news reached Genoa that they were preparing a fresh 
fleet for an attack on Porto Venere, "et pro vastanda tota 
Marcha Ianue usque ad portum civitatis ipsius." In their terror 
the Genoese sent envoys to implore the intervention of the 
Emperor on their behalf, and vast sums of money {magna pe- 
cunid) to be expended in bribing the officials of his court 1 . 

Such is the story told by Marangone, and, until the tide of 
war begins to turn against Genoa, Caffaro corroborates him. 
Thenceforward, however, there is a distinct divergence between 
the two chronicles. Caffaro would have us believe that it was 
the Pisans and not the Genoese who begged for peace, and that, 
at their prayer, Rainald of Cologne, who was then in Pisa, 
"pietate commotus," sent his chaplain to Genoa to arrange a 
truce, beseeching that the Consul Bonaccorso and the other 
prisoners should be given up to him "pro amore Dei." Neither 
Marangone nor Caffaro can be regarded as impartial witnesses ; 
but the testimony of the former is less open to suspicion than 
that of the latter. Caffaro was at this time over eighty years 
old, and he no longer wrote of the expeditions and conquests 
in which he had personally borne a part. All that was left to 
him was his semi-official position as Chronicler of the Victories 
of Genoa 2 . It was no part of his duty to record reverses. More- 
over, he had by this time acquired some of the vices of the mere 
man of letters, embellishing his narrative with fine phrases and 
far-fetched similes. Galleys sweep out of the harbour of Genoa 
in search of revenge "sicut sitientes ad aquam," and hover 
round an enemy fleet "veloces uti falcones." He has altogether 
emancipated himself from the "cold and monotonous imper- 
sonality" which so often characterizes the mediaeval writer, and 
has become the old man garrulous, intent only on magnifying 

1 Marangone, ubi at. pp. 29, 30; Caffaro, Annates Ianuenses, pp. 62-72. 

2 In 1 152 Caffaro had presented his work to the consuls and the Council, 
who ordered the public scrivener " ut librum a Cafaro compositum et nota- 
tum scriberet et in comuni cartulario poneret, ut deinceps cuncto tempore 
futuris hominibus Ianuensis [civitatis] victorie cognoscantur." 



xi] FROM CONSTANTINOPLE 141 

the deeds of Genoa and belittling those of her enemies. The 
chronicle of Marangone, on the other hand, is a mere register 
of events, possibly intended for no other eye than his own and 
certainly without official recognition. So far is he from sup- 
pressing damaging facts that we sometimes obtain a more un- 
favourable view of Pisan conduct from his pages than we do 
from those of the Genoese themselves 1 . Bonaini's "scrittore 
di fede incorrotta 2 " is no exaggeration when applied to Maran- 
gone; and I am satisfied that no one who is accustomed to 
weigh the relative value of evidence can study the two chronicles 
without reaching the conclusion that Marangone is, on the face 
of it, a more trustworthy witness than CarTaro 3 . Then, too, in 
the case in point, his is the more probable narrative, for why 
should the Pisans seek for peace when their galleys were tri- 
umphantly riding the open sea and the Genoese galleys were 
cowering beneath the fortress walls of Porto Venere ? Add to 
all this that the war had been begun by Genoa at a time when 
she was supposed to be preparing, and when Pisa was actually 
preparing, to aid the Emperor in his projected expedition against 
the Normans. Her conduct had wrecked his most cherished 
designs, and it was only natural that she should send envoys to 
the Imperial Court to excuse herself. Her probable line of de- 
fence is indicated by Caffaro when he tells us that the twelve 
galleys which raided Pisa were armed and provisioned "sine 
iussione consulum" ; but such an excuse as that would avail 
nothing to mitigate the wrath and suspicion of Frederick un- 
less he could be convinced that the Genoese earnestly desired 
peace. Their only chance of so convincing him was to beseech 
his intervention on their behalf "pro acquirenda pace vel tregua 

1 Thus, for example, we may compare Marangone, ubi cit. p. 67, with 
the continuator of Caffaro, Oberto Cancelliere, Annates Ianuenses, p. 255. 
The detail that "Pisani... satis vilissime fugierunt" is recorded only by the 
former. 

2 Arch. Stor. It. S. I, T. vi, P. 1, p. xxiv. 

3 This does not, of course, affect the great value of Caffaro 's chronicle to 
the student of mediaeval Italy. There is, so far as I am aware, no other 
annalist of the twelfth century who throws so much light on the manners 
and customs and modes of thought of his day and generation. Even if Caffaro 
be the liar I take him to be, it is pleasant to be able to study a mediaeval 
liar of his calibre at close quarters. 



142 EXPULSION OF THE GENOESE [ch. xi 

cum Pisanis." Neither did they let the grass grow under their 
feet, and when the Pisan ambassadors reached Turin, the money 
which the Genoese had lavished on the officials of the Imperial 
court seems to have produced its effect. Marangone complains 
that Frederick refused to hear any proof of their horrible crime 
and perjury: "et praedicti sceleris et periurii probationem 
noluit Imperator suscipere." By his command, a truce was 
concluded which was to be binding on both cities "usque ad 
adventum suum in Tusciam 1 ." 

When Frederick returned to Italy in the following year, the 
attitude of Genoa was completely changed. A feudal reaction 
had placed the government in the hands of an oligarchy which 
looked for support to the Empire, and the promises and con- 
ventions which had been entered into through fear in 1162, 
were willingly renewed in 1 163 2 . Yet if, through the violence of 
a faction or for momentary interest, Genoa seemed to have re- 
nounced her anti-imperial policy, her hatred of Pisa had not 
abated; and, in seeking to provide fresh troubles for her rival, 
she indirectly created new obstacles to the Sicilian expedition. 
The re-opening of the Sardinian question frustrated all the 
designs of the Emperor. 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 30,31. 

2 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 233 ; Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, op. cit. cap. vn. 



CHAPTER THE TWELFTH 
BARISONE OF ARBOREA 

1 he glorious issue of the Balearic war had naturally tended to 
increase the influence of Pisa in Sardinia. In three of the four 
Judgeships, Gallura, Torres and Cagliari, the ancient alliances 
were confirmed, and probably with fresh privileges. As to the 
Judgeship of Arborea we only know that foreign settlers, esitizos, 
were numerous, and that the judges were wont to make generous 
concessions in their favour. Whether these esitizos were pre- 
ponderantly Pisan or Genoese we have no means of ascertain- 
ing; but it may be accepted as certain that the privilege of 
Gelasius II, in 1118 1 , was not in conflict with the actual con- 
ditions of the island. 

During the long war between Pisa and Genoa (1119-1132) 
Sardinia was something more than a disinterested spectator; 
and Professor Besta is inclined to believe that the fact that, in 
1 125, a great Pisan ship which was attacked by Genoese galleys 
in the straits of S. Bonifacio attempted to reach the Arno, in- 
stead of seeking refuge in a Sardinian port 2 , may be taken as 
evidence that the inhabitants of the northern shores of the 
island were no longer on the side of Pisa. Be that as it may, we 
know that, after the death of Judge Costantino, in 1127 or 
thereabouts, Logudoro was a prey to intestine discords. The 
heir Gonnario was a mere child ; and the powerful family of the 
Athen not only aspired to the honours and emoluments of the 
regency, but by their violence and intrigues seem to have en- 
dangered the life of Gonnario. To withdraw him from the 
perils which surrounded him, Ithoccor Gambella, an old and 

1 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 220: "Confermo Gelasio a Pietro Arcivescovo tutto 
quello che era stato prima concesso a' suoi antecessori, e massime da Urbano 
due; e fecelo patriarca di tutta la Sardinia e di Corsica ancora." Cf. Besta, 
op. cit. 1, 98, and see p. 69 supra. 

2 Caffaro, Annates Ianuenses, p. 22. 



144 BARISONE OF ARBOREA [ch. 

faithful friend of the deceased Judge, smuggled him away to 
the port of Torres, where there were already quarters entirely 
occupied by Pisan merchants; and thence he made good his 
escape to Pisa. At Pisa he remained until he was eighteen, 
having married the daughter of his host and protector, Ugone 
di Pagano Ebriaci, a member of one of the most influential of 
the consular families, belonging to the consorteria of the Vis- 
conti. When the time came for him to lay claim to the Judge- 
ship of Torres, the commune was easily persuaded to lend its 
aid, and, in 1130, he returned to Logudoro accompanied by 
four Pisan galleys. He found many adherents; but the Athen 
resisted desperately, making head at Puthumaiore. Many of 
their chiefs fell beneath the walls of the strong fortress of 
Goceano on the slopes of Monte Rasu ; others were put to the 
sword in the church of S. Nicolo di Trullas, and Gonnario was 
firmly seated on the throne of his fathers. In return for the 
assistance of the Pisans, he assigned to the Opera di S. Maria 
the corte di Castel d' Erio in La Nurra and that of Bosove in 
the curatoria of Romania, together with half of Monte dell' Ar- 
gentiera ; he promised the Pisans to do them justice secundum 
usum Sardiniae terrae, or, in other words, to invest them with 
all the legal rights of native-born Sardinians, and he swore 
fealty to the Opera and to Archbishop Ruggero 1 . 

The Genoese were naturally alarmed; they had probably 
favoured the Athen, and they hastened to enter into an alliance 
with Comita of Arborea, who apparently aspired to the sove- 
reignty of Sardinia. He shortly afterwards attacked Logudoro, 
but without success; and, about the year 1133, he disappears 
from the scene, to be succeeded by his brother Torbeno and 
later on by Torbeno 's son Orzocorre 2 . Meanwhile, Comita de 
Spanu had succeeded Ithoccor de Gunali on the throne of 
Gallura, and, on the 20th of June, 1131, the new Judge leagued 
himself with the Pisans, agreeing among other things not to 
divulge the secrets of the commune, whether they should be 
communicated to him by letter or by envoys, and to save pro 

1 Besta, op. cit. 1, pp. 101-103. 2 Ibid. pp. 103, 104. 



PLATE IX 




J?*** 



f*s$^\(f7^\ 



rf 







CHURCH OF S. NICCOLA 



PLATE X 




PULPIT OF NICCOLO PISANO 



xii] BARISONE OF ARBOREA 145 

suo posse the inhabitants of Pisa and of the suburbs of Cinzica. 
The terms of this convention were infinitely more favourable 
than those concluded with Ithoccor de Gunali in 11 13, and 
show how completely Pisan influence had insinuated itself into 
the political life of the judgeship. Those unrevealable secrets 
have all the appearance of orders, more or less disguised, per- 
haps, but none the less for that requiring punctual performance 1 . 
The relations of Pisa with Cagliari had long been of a cordial 
character, and the conduct of the Genoese with regard to the 
Judge of Arborea had naturally served to make them even more 
intimate than heretofore. The ambitious designs of Comita 
menaced all his fellow judges alike; and when, in 1133, the 
Archbishop of Pisa was reinstated in the Legation of Sardinia 2 , 
the Pisans seemed in a fair way to convert their commercial 
hegemony into a political one. 

Unfortunately, however, the enmity between the Judges of 
Arborea and Torres continued unabated, and if, for a little 
while, they laid aside their arms, they soon resumed them. The 
fortune of war seems to have gone against Gonnario, and on the 
10th of November, 1 144, in the presence of Archbishop Baldu- 
ino, the Pisan consuls, among whom were two of the Visconti, 
swore to aid the Judge Gonnario with all their power against 
the attacks of his enemies and to assist him in regaining that 
which he had lost. The same oath was to be taken by the people 
of Pisa in full par lamentum, with the obligation not to recognize 
as consuls those who refused to renew it annually 3 . In 1145 
Eugenius III ascended the Papal throne, and, on the 29th of 
May, he confirmed the jurisdictional rights of the Pisan Church 
in Sardinia and Corsica 4 . In his capacity of Papal Legate, Arch- 
bishop Balduino excommunicated and deposed the Judge of 
Arborea, and, on the advice of St Bernard of Clairvaux, his 

1 Besta, op. cit. p. 105. The document in question has been published by 
Professor Besta, in his Per la storia del giudicato di Galium, pp. 9, 10. 

2 P. 79 supra. 

3 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 260. The document has, I believe, been published 
by Professor Besta, // liber iudicum turritanorum con altri documenti logudoresi 
(Palermo, 1906), App., Doc. II. 

4 P. 107 supra. 

h. 10 



146 BARISONE OF ARBOREA [ch. 

action was approved by Eugenius 1 . The deposed Judge was 
succeeded by Barisone, the son of Comita, who, in the earlier 
years of his reign was amicu to Pisa. For a few years Sardinia 
was at peace; and, in 1147, Gonnario was at last able to follow 
his mystical inclinations and to set out on a pilgrimage to the 
Holy Sepulchre. Shortly after his return, he took the cowl and 
retired to the Abbey of Clairvaux 2 . 

Genoa, however, had not abandoned her ambitious designs, 
and even when, in n 49, exhausted by her expedition against 
Almeria and Tortosa, she entered into an offensive and defen- 
sive alliance with Pisa, a special clause was inserted in the docu- 
ment excluding Sardinia from the operation of the treaty 3 . The 
Genoese were already firmly established in Corsica, and if they 
could have further acquired a preponderant influence in Sar- 
dinia, the relations of Pisa, not only with Provence and Spain 
but also with Morocco, would have been seriously compro- 
mised. The prize for which they contended was nothing less 
than a monopoly of the carrying trade of the Western Mediter- 
ranean. What wonder that, even in time of peace, the war be- 
tween the communes continued in the form of intrigues and 
reprisals? Next, to increase the confusion caused by their 
rivalry, came the attempt of Frederick Barbarossa to establish 
the Imperial authority in Italy and in the great islands of the 
Tyrrhenian Sea ; the machinations of Pope Alexander ; the dis- 
turbances in Constantinople, and the Genoese attack on Pisa 
(June, 1 1 62). We have already seen how ill the aggressors fared 
in the war which followed, how they were forced to humble 
themselves before the Emperor and to beg for peace. Never- 
theless, they were by no means minded to accept their failure 

1 Besta, La Sardegna Medioevale, 1, 109, citing Bern. Clarav. Opera omnia 
(Lyon, 1867), 1, n. 108, op. ccxliv: "quod bone memorie Balduinus pisanus 
archiepiscopus fecit in Sardinia de excommunicatione arvorensis iudicis; 
quia non nisi iuste hoc virum bonum fecisse credimus, vestra auctoritate 
ratum et inconcussum manere rogamus." 

2 Besta, op. cit. 1, 110,111. 

3 Dal Borgo, Diplomi pisani, pp. 311-313: "Hec omnia que superius 
scripta sunt observabo sine dolo et fraude in laude meorum consulum 

EXCEPTO DE SARDINIA, DE QUA PISANIS NULLO MODO HOC SACRAMENTO 
TENEBOR, QUIN ET ME ADIUVARE POSSIM ET EIS NOCERE, SI VOLUERO." 



xii] BARISONE OF ARBOREA 147 

as final, and resolved to achieve by craft that which they had 
not been able to gain by force of arms. In Barisone of Arborea 
they found an instrument ready to their hand. 

So late as 1 151, Barisone had still been on excellent terms 
with Pisa, and in the summer of that year we find him acting 
as intermediary between the commune and Count Raymond of 
Barcelona with a view to a fresh crusade against the Saracens 
of Majorca 1 . Only after his marriage with Agalbursa, the daugh- 
ter of Ponsio, Viscount of Basso, in whose veins ran the blood of 
the royal house of Aragon 2 , did he begin to meditate those 
ambitious designs which eventually made him the puppet of 
tjenoa. 

In 1 1 63 Costantino of Cagliari died, leaving three sons-in- 
law 3 : Pietro di Torres, Oberto di Massa and Tedice di Donora- 
tico. There seemed to be a probability of a disputed succession, 
and in a disputed succession Barisone of Arborea saw oppor- 
tunities of aggrandisement. He hastened to set up another pre- 
tender, Barisone the son of Torbeno, a relative of his own; the 
Cagliaritano was invaded, and Pietro, who, as the husband of the 
eldest sister, would seem to have already ascended the throne, 
was obliged to flee for his life. He took refuge with his brother 
Barisone of Torres. As sons of Gonnario, the brothers were 
related through their mother with the powerful family of the 
Ebriaci 4 , and the intervention of the Pisans completely changed 
the aspects of the war: "Anno Domini mclxv, in mense Aprilis. 
Parason iudex Turritanus, cum fratribus et "avunculis suis 
pisanis, Barile, Gainello, Paganello et Paulo, et Donicellus 
Petrus iudex de Callari, f rater iudicis Parasonis de Turri, fe- 
cerunt exercitum magnum supra Parasonem iudicem Arboreae, 
pro multis iniuriis sibi illatis, et mense Aprili in Arboream 
intraverunt, palatia et domos multas destruxerunt et igne cre- 
maverunt, viros et mulieres et spolia multa inde abstraxerunt 5 ." 
Barisone of Arborea himself narrowly escaped falling into their 

1 See p. 69 supra. 2 Besta, op. cit. I, 121. 

3 As I have already pointed out, when a judge died, leaving only daughters, 
the daughters inherited, but their rights passed to their husbands, and the 
husband of the daughter who succeeded became the Judex. See p. 18 supra. 

4 P. 143 supra. 5 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 36. 



148 BARISONE OF ARBOREA [ch. 

hands, and was compelled to take refuge in the stronghold of 
Cabras. Finding his position well-nigh hopeless, he sent am- 
bassadors to Genoa and to the Emperor, imploring assistance 
and offering to pay four thousand silver marks 1 in return for 
the investiture of the whole of Sardinia. 

The Genoese, who had in all probability instigated the attack 
on Cagliari, warmly supported his petition, hoping in return for 
their services to obtain the commercial hegemony of the island ; 
and when Ugo, Bishop of S. Giusta in the giudicato of Arborea, 
appeared before the Emperor at Parma 2 , he was accompanied 
by two of the most eminent political personages of Genoa 3 . 
Genoese ambassadors were already at the Imperial Court, 
having followed it from Fano, whither they had come to ascer- 
tain the Emperor's good pleasure regarding the Sicilian expedi- 
tion. Frederick was naturally anxious to ingratiate himself with 
the powerful republic which, now for the first time, seemed 
willing to yield him unquestioning obedience, and he was 
always sorely in need of money. He therefore lent a willing ear 
to the words of Bishop Ugo, and announced his intention of 
sending legates to Sardinia to bring Barisone to his presence. 
The Pisans flatly refused to lend their assistance ; they told the 
Emperor to his face that that which he was about to do was 
" against the honour of their city," and declared that " Ianuenses 
nullo modo portabunt iudicem in Sardinia contra velle nos- 
trum 4 ." The Genoese, on the other hand, were only too willing 
to carry out Frederick's wishes ; they armed seven galleys and a 
galliot to convey the legates to Sardinia, returning in May with 

1 According to the Annales Ianuenses (edition cited), p. 159: "quatuor 
milia marcarum argenti." Marangone, on the other hand, speaks of "xv 
milia librarum inter aurum et argentum." 

2 The Emperor was already in Parma on 13th March, and remained there 
till the 17th April. 

3 Besta, op. cit. 1, 124; Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, op. cit. p. 289 ; Manfroni, 
op. cit. p. 234; Volpe, op. cit. p. 180. 

4 Oberti Cancellarii Annales Ianuenses (edition Belgrano), pp. 157-159- 
Oberto Nasello, called Oberto Cancelliere because he was chancellor of the 
commune, was instructed by a decree of the consuls, in 1169, to continue 
the annals of Genoa. Beginning with the year 1 164, he carried the narrative 
down to the end of 11 73. In his proemium he records the death of CafFaro, 
in 1 166, "anno eiusdem etatis octuagesimo sexto." 



xn] BARISONE OF ARBOREA 149 

Barisone himself. Apparently, no attempt was made to prevent 
his departure, but a fleet of eight galleys put out from Pisa 
"pro guardia maris et Sardineae" under the command of 
Raniero Alferoli, one of the consuls, with instructions to watch 
the Genoese, and to see that neither they nor the Imperial 
legates attempted any "vindictam" or " offensionem " in the 
island. Another consul, Ildebrando di Ranuccio Janni, was de- 
puted "pro sedanda discordia iudicum"; and at his command a 
truce was entered into "usque ad redditum iudicis Arboreae 1 ." 
Genoa prepared to give Barisone a royal welcome. Accom- 
panied by a vast multitude, the consuls of the city, "cum 
quibusdam sapientibus viris," betook themselves to the sea- 
shore to escort him to his lodging with all due ceremony. Un- 
fortunately, however, just as he was about to land, a quarrel 
arose between the followers of two Genoese nobles, Falco di 
Castello and Rolando Awocato. Stones were thrown and arrows 
flew; three men of note were slain and many were wounded; 
and all the time that Barisone sojourned there, the city was on 
the verge of civil war 2 . Accompanied by Guglielmo Doria, by 
Gionata da Campo and by the iudices Bigotto and Guido of 
Lodi, "pluresque alios secum ducentes," he reached Pavia at 
the end of July, and, early in August, was solemnly crowned, 
in the Church of S. Siro, with a crown which Genoa had given 
him 3 . The Pisans, thereupon, left the court in high dudgeon. 
If they had permitted Barisone to leave Sardinia, they had none 
the less determined to use every means to prevent his coronation ; 
and, after his arrival in Pavia, they had pushed their opposition 
to the furthest limits, protesting, in full Diet, that not only was 
Frederick about to grant a crown and a kingdom to one who 
was their serf and vassal, and therefore unworthy, but that he 
was giving away that which was not his to bestow, since Sar- 
dinia belonged to Pisa: "Domine imperator, salvo honore ves- 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 36. 

2 Oberti Cancellarii Annales Ianuenses, p. 160. See also Imperiale di 
Sant' Angelo, op. cit. p. 290 et seq. 

3 According to Marangone, Barisone was crowned " quarto idus Augusti " ; 
whereas Oberto Cancelliere gives the date as " prima die lunemensis Augusti," 
namely the 3rd August, 1164. 



150 BARISONE OF ARBOREA [ch 

tro, non debuissetis facere quod vos facitis sine nostro consilio. 
Datis enim isti nostro rustico et nostro homini coronam et 
regnum; et certe non est persona cui tanta dignitas conveniat. 
Iniuste enim, si placet, facitis, quia Sardinia nostra est, et ipsum 
regem facitis de alieno." "To which things," says Oberto 
Cancelliere, "our Consuls made answer openly in full court: 
'Lord Emperor, that which the Pisans assert is wholly false, 
and they lie ; for neither is he [Barisone] serf nor vassal of theirs 
but most noble. Rather are the Pisans themselves, for the most 
part, his vassals ; and every year they go unto his land for such 
things as are needful for them; and scarcely might they live 
without the fruit and use of the land of this king. And when 
they say that Sardinia is theirs they lie with shameless insolence ; 
for it is ours, and that we both assert and will make good. Hear 
now the truth. Of old time did we subjugate it with our arms ; 
and in the Judgeship of Cagliari were our kinsfolk and ancestors 
with an army; and they conquered that Judgeship; and the 
king thereof, Musaito by name, they took and all that was his. 
Thereafter, they brought him even unto our city, as a captive 
enemy ; and the Bishop of Genoa, that then was, did the Consuls 
send to the Emperor of Germany and with him the said king 
Musaito, to the end that the Roman sovereign might know that 
the kingdom of that king was newly joined and added unto the 
dominion and authority of the Roman Empire by the hand of his 
feudatories and vassals the Genoese. ' And when, by reason of 
these words, strife should have increased among them, the Em- 
peror made answer to the Pisans, saying, ' I know not that that 
land, the island of Sardinia, is yours. Neither do I believe that 
ye speak sooth. Rather do I think that it belongeth unto the 
Empire. Neither do I hold the king to be your man. As to my 
making a grant to him and thereupon creating him a king, I do 
it by the counsel of my Court ; and this I deem to be absolutely 
within the right of the Empire 1 .' " Such is the narrative of the 
official annalist of Genoa, and, although we may well doubt 
whether the Pisans blushed for shame (erubuerunt) at the words 

1 Oberti Cancellarii Annates lanuenses, pp. 161, 162. Compare Maran- 
gone, ubi cit. p. 37. 



xii] BARISONE OF ARBOREA 151 

of the Emperor 1 , as he says they did, we may probably take it 
that his account is in the main a truthful one. 

Neither the Pisans nor the Genoese were able to escape from 
their feudal environment, and the arguments adopted by their 
respective representatives are of considerable interest as indi- 
cating how the political conceptions of the Middle Ages were 
applied to a concrete case. It is, however, not altogether easy 
to understand on what grounds the Pisans ventured to assert 
that Barisone was their rusticus and homo, unless, indeed, they 
based their contention wholly upon the right of conquest. Even 
if Barisone had not already left Sardinia when Ildebrando di 
Ranuccio Janni came thither "pro sedanda discordia iudicum" 
and "fecit omnes iudices Sardineae omnia praecepta sua et 
sociorum iurare 2 ," such oaths, in the absence of express words 
of fealty and homage, could hardly be construed as oaths of 
vassalage. At the same time it is by no means impossible that 
there may have been express words; Marangone definitely 
states that Barisone "securitates et omnia praecepta et fideli- 
tatem Pisanis Consulibus fecerat 3 ." The Genoese, on the other 
hand, were in a strong position when they contended that 
"Pisanorum maior pars vassali sunt ipsius [Barisonis] " ; for it 
is clear from the Breve Consulum Pisanae Civitatis of this very 
year that many individual Pisans had actually entered into re- 
lations of vassalage with the Sardinian judges ; or how should 
each of the consuls on taking office be compelled to swear: 
"Nullorum namque Sardineae iudicum, eorumve filiorum aut 
uxorum vel fratrum, sum vel ero fidelis vel vassallus aut doni- 
caliensis toto tempore mei consulatus 4 " ? The story of the cap- 
ture of Musaitus (Mogahid), and of his journey to Germany in 
the custody of the Bishop of Genoa, was, of course, a fiction; 
but it was hard to disprove it, and inasmuch as it practically 
admitted the Imperial suzerainty, it sounded pleasantly in the 
ears of Barbarossa, who was the first of the Emperors to attempt to 
deprive the Papal See of its jurisdiction in Corsica and Sardinia 5 . 

1 Is it possible that they blushed, but blushed for the Emperor's Latin ? 

2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 36. 

3 Ibid. p. 37. 

4 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, 1, 24. 

5 Annali Genovesi, etc., a cura di L. T. Belgrano, op. cit. p. 162 n. 



152 BARISONE OF ARBOREA [ch. 

Barisone's troubles were, however, only just beginning. 
When Frederick demanded payment of the four thousand silver 
marks which had been agreed upon as the price of his corona- 
tion, he was unable to produce them; and the newly crowned 
king narrowly escaped being incarcerated till he should have 
paid the debt. In his extremity he was compelled to throw 
himself upon the self-interested generosity of the Genoese. 
They lent him the money, but upon terms which destroyed his 
political independence and laid him at their mercy. On the 
1 6th of September, he swore, in consideration of the services 
which had been rendered him "in perceptione coronae et in 
confirmatione ipsius," to uphold the honour of Genoa, to build 
himself a palace in the city, on a site to be assigned to him by 
the consuls, and to dwell there one year in every four; to pay, 
in his capacity of citizen, an exceptional war contribution of a 
hundred thousand pounds, as well as an annual tax of four 
hundred marks ; to protect the goods and persons of the Genoese 
and to grant them full liberty of commerce in the territories 
which he already possessed or should thereafter acquire; to 
concede such number of corti and albergherie as should be neces- 
sary for the carrying on of their trade, and specifically, enough 
land for the building of a hundred houses in the port of Oristano 
(Aureum stagnum). He further undertook to despoil the Pisans 
of the donnicalie already granted to them, and to make common 
cause with the Genoese in expelling them from the island, pay- 
ing half the expenses of the war and victualling the fleets and 
armies which were sent to prosecute it. Finally, he undertook 
to use every means in his power to procure that the Primacy 
and Legation of Sardinia should be taken from Pisa and given 
to Genoa. Neither did these concessions avail to liquidate the 
debt which he owed in respect of the four thousand marks 
which had been paid by the Genoese citizens to the Emperor, 
and of the other expenses incurred in connection with his coro- 
nation. For the integral performance of these obligations his 
whole realm was pledged to the Genoese, while, as an immediate 
guaranty of good faith, he agreed to deliver up the walled towns 
of Arcolento and Marmilla 1 . 

1 Besta, op. cit. I, 128, 129, and authorities there cited. 



xii] BARISONE OF ARBOREA 153 

Meanwhile, all Sardinia had risen in arms. Barisone's claim 
to be "solus rex" had naturally irritated and alarmed his 
brother judges ; and, when they learned that the Genoese were 
preparing "a great army of knights well nigh two hundred, of 
footmen and of archers, with eight galleys and three great trans- 
ports to convey the said army into Arborea, to recover the land 
and to subjugate all Sardinia to his rule and governance, " the 
Judges of Torres and Cagliari invaded Arborea. Their uncle 
Gainello degli Ebriaci came to their assistance with a galley, 
and the greater part of the giudicato was ruthlessly devastated. 
Only the citadel of Cabras, where the royal treasure had been 
deposited, resisted the onslaught: "Maiorem partem Arboreae 
igne cremaverunt, oves et boves et equos occiderunt, et inde 
abstraxerunt cum multa spolia." At the same time the Pisans 
sent six galleys to Cagliari "pro eius defensione et guardia et 
totius Sardineae 1 ." 

Finally, on the 22nd of November 2 , the fleet which was to 
convey Barisone, now a tributary and vassal of Genoa, to his 
dearly bought kingdom, put out to sea. Unfortunately for him, 
however, he was already suspected of treachery; the Genoese 
fully realized how unconscionable was the bargain which they 
had driven, and, to make matters worse, a few days after the 
treaty of September 16th, certain Pisans had come to Genoa, 
"quasi dominum suum desiderio videre cupientes," and had 
spoken in secret with Barisone and the " nequissimus " Bishop 
of S. Giusta. A commission of "wise men" was therefore ap- 
pointed "ut vigilarent in custodia ipsius regis ut in terram nullo 
modo eundem regem ponerent 3 . ,, After a prosperous voyage, 
during which they captured four Pisan saettie off Longo Sardo 4 , 
the Genoese galleys cast anchor in the bay of Oristano. Barisone 
once more beheld his kingdom ; the members of his suite, the 
milites iudicis of the Pisan chronicler, were sent ashore to obtain 
the ratification of the treaty and the cession to the Genoese of 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 37. 

2 "Iudex [Parason] denique...Ianuam reversus est,... et ibi moratus est 
usque ad decimum Kalendas Decembris." 

3 Oberti Cancellarii Annates Ianuenses, p. 166. 

4 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 39. 



154 BARISONE OF ARBOREA [ch. 

the towns which had been pledged ; but neither arguments nor 
entreaties availed anything with the Consul Pizzamiglio or the 
"sapientes." Barisone himself was not permitted to land. 

The question of ratification appears to have offered little 
difficulty 1 ; but the Genoese were determined not to let their 
debtor out of their hands until he had repaid the whole of the 
money lent him. This he was unable to do, and the inexorable 
result of his insolvency was his return to Genoa. Moreover, 
further delay was felt to be dangerous. No sooner had the 
Pisans heard of the capture of their saettie than they armed 
eleven galleys and dispatched them to Sardinia "ad expellendos 
Ianuenses." News came to Oristano of a Pisan fleet at Torres, 
of another at Cagliari, of the approach of the eleven galleys from 
Pisa, and of a great army which was advancing by land under the 
command of a consul. Then, too, a Pisan emissary had been 
sent to Barisone, though it is not clear that he was permitted to 
have speech with him 2 ; Agalbursa refused to allow the Genoese 
to take possession of Arcolento unless she was first permitted 
to see her husband 3 ; and it seemed as though the negotiations 
were being wilfully protracted until the trap should be ready 
to close upon the Genoese 4 . Wherefore, says Marangone, "re- 
lictis militibus et negotiatoribus et navibus et sagittis, pro timore 
Pisanorum, cum iudice usque Ianuam fugierunt; qui septimo 
idus Februarii Ianuam applicuere; de quo facto Ianuenses 
magnam habuerunt tristitiam, et iudicem in carcere tenuerunt. 
Pisani itaque Consules qui in Sardinea erant, milites et nego- 
tiatores Ianuensium cepere, et totam Sardineam sub tributo et 
fidelitate, expulsis Ianuensibus, posuerunt 5 ." 

The clumsy edifice which the Genoese had so laboriously 
reared on a foundation of fraud and usury fell to pieces about 
the ears of its architects ; and the Emperor once more changed 

1 Besta, op. cit. I, 130, and authorities there cited. 

2 "Et Marzucus pisanus, missus eorum, iam ad regem pro eis venerat." 

3 " Domine rex, baiuli vestri et etiam uxor non dimiserunt nos ascendere 
castrum, neque solutionem facient, donee primo vestram personam viderint." 
The conjecture that the "castrum" in question was Arcolento is Professor 
Besta's {op. cit. 1, 132, n. 46). 

4 Oberti Cancellarii Annates Ianuenses , p. 167. 

5 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 39. 



xn] BARISONE OF ARBOREA 155 

his policy. His contempt for a mere "scrap of paper" was 
worthy of any modern German Kaiser, and the privilegium 
which Barisone had been so careful to obtain from him 1 availed 
him nothing. On the 17th of April, 1165, at Frankfurt-on-Main, 
Frederick annulled the investiture of the previous August and 
granted totam insulam Sardineae in feud to the commune of 
Pisa 2 . The gift, however, was not gratuitous. In the preceding 
November, Christian, Archbishop of Mayence,had visited Pisa 3 , 
and had received thirteen thousand silver pounds as the price 
of investiture 4 . 

■Pisa had triumphed, but the end was not yet. The Sardinians 
fully realized that, unless the struggle between the two great mari- 
time cities finished like the battle of the Kilkenny cats, they 
were inevitably destined to become the vassals of the victors. 
The maintenance of the Balance of Power was an unalterable 
condition of their security. To resist the pretensions of Barisone, 
the other judges had ranged themselves on the side of Pisa; 
against a too powerful Pisa, laying claim to the suzerainty of 
the whole island, they were prepared to ally themselves with 
Genoa ; and it is probably to this change of attitude that we may 
attribute the apparently wanton attack made by the Pisans on 
Torres, in the following month : " Pisani qui in Turri erant cum 
xi galeis, praedictis Pisanorum Consulibus invitis et contra- 
dicentibus, infra terram ad villas Turris iverunt, easque pre- 
dabantur et devastabant." The outrage was, however, speedily 
avenged. On the 12th of May, the Vigil of the Ascension, no 
fewer than eighty Pisans were put to the sword by the Sardinians. 
Barisone of Torres, with the Judges of Cagliari and Gallura, 
hastened to deny all complicity with the action of the populace ; 
Barisone came to Pisa to exculpate himself, and, in a parla- 

1 "Cui rex respondit, Domine imperator, gratia Dei et vestri et dominorum 
Janue, omne michi completum est sicut legati vestri michi promiserunt, excepto 
privilegio regni. Statim imperator mandavit notario, et iussit continuo privi- 
legium scribi et sigillari" {Ann. Ianuenses, p. 162). 

2 Dal Borgo, Dipl. pisani, p. 38; Marangone, ubi cit. p. 38. 

3 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 38. 

4 Oberti Cancellarii Ann. Ianuenses, p. 194. 



156 BARISONE OF ARBOREA [ch. 

mentum convened in Borgo S. Michele, swore upon the gospels 
that he had had no part, either material or moral, in the mas- 
sacre. He admitted that he held his judgeship in feud from the 
commune and promised, in addition to paying a tribute of a 
hundred pounds, to present twelve pairs of falcons annually in 
sign of vassalage 1 . Nevertheless, the ancient amity of the Sar- 
dinians for Pisa had sustained a shock from which Genoa could 
hardly fail to reap advantage. 

Moreover, as the century grew older, the relative positions 
of Pisa and Genoa became ever more and more favourable for 
the latter. The intoxication of enthusiasm, the illusions and 
ambitions inspired by the identification of the policy of Pisa 
with the policy of the Empire, were doomed to a bitter awaken- 
ing; for the resources of Pisa were not equal to the strain to 
which they were subjected. As we have already seen, her con- 
tado y though vast in extension, was neither rich enough nor 
populous enough to bear the continual drain demanded by her 
maritime enterprises. In the main, the city itself was compelled 
to supply the city's need of seamen. For a century, thanks to 
its enormously rapid development, this continued to be possible ; 
but a period of arrest followed ; and arrest, while yet the energies 
and capacities of her enemies were not fully developed, was 
equivalent to decline. Ere long Genoa easily surpassed her in 
material resources, and only by the indomitable vigour and 
daring of her children was Pisa any longer able to hold her own. 
As wholly maritime in character, the territory of Genoa shared 
the sentiments and ambitions of the city; and Genoa was able, 
even in the twelfth century, to complete that transformation of 
the commune in regard to its relations with the contado which 
elsewhere was only attained under the rule of the despots. 
Already, the distrettuali of Genoa were called "Genoese" and 
were every whit as much Genoese as were the inhabitants of 
the city itself. That city had become simply a particular point 
in the civic territory. Between 1150 and 11 80 Genoa com- 
pleted the work of subjecting, conciliating and binding to her- 
self the cities of her two Riviere: Savona in 1153, and shortly 

1 Marangone, ubi tit. pp. 39, 40. 



xn] BARISONE OF ARBOREA 157 

afterwards Noli; Ventimiglia, Porto S. Maurizio and S. Remo 
in 1 1 66 and 11 67; Albenga in 1179. Each and all of them be- 
came part " de compagna civitatis Ianue," and a series of treaties 
placed their maritime forces at the disposition of the Republic 1 . 

1 See Volpe, op. cit. p. 178. I do not, of course, wish to imply that the 
subjected cities were all of them contented with their lot. For more than two 
centuries rebellions were not infrequent (see Carden, The City of Genoa, op. 
cit. pp. 8, 9), but the fact remains that, from the last quarter of the twelfth 
century, the resources of the two Riviere were at the disposition of Genoa. 



CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH 
RAINALD OF COLOGNE 

In i 162 Frederick sent Rainald, Archbishop of Cologne, with 
the title of Italiae archicancellarins et imperatoriae maiestatis 
legatus, to re-order the administration of Tuscany on a new 
plan. The dissolution of the Margravate was accepted as an 
inevitable fact, and it was resolved to reassume the direct 
government of its various parts by means of German Counts 
or Potesta, as had already been done in Lombardy. Many for- 
tresses were garrisoned by German troops and others were con- 
structed. S. Miniato al Tedesco, with its tower on the hill-top 
and the unwalled village of S. Genesio below, became the centre 
of the new administration 1 . At the same time, an attempt was 
made to reconcile the rights of the Empire with the jurisdiction 
which the communes had so long exercised in their respective 
contadi. None of them denied the right of the Emperor to de- 
mand the oath of fealty, to confirm in their offices the magis- 
trates freely elected by the citizens, to levy tribute and to raise 
troops. The cause of their discontent lay in the difficulties 
which the Imperial potesta interposed to the exercise of civic 
jurisdiction over the entire territory of the contado and diocese 
of each city. Legally speaking, the potesta were in the right. 
In every case, except that of Pisa, the jurisdiction exercised by 
the communes was abusive. One or two of the more favoured 
of them had, it is true, obtained concessions which enabled 

1 Villari, I primi due secolt, etc., op. cit. 1, 121. We have record of these 
German counts or potesta in the territories of Florence, Siena, Arezzo, Vol- 
terra, Pistoia, Prato, Chiusi. Among the rest we may recall a potestas Flor- 
entiae Pipinus, a Guilielmus de Asio (Wilhelm von Aachen) in the Senese, the 
centre of whose jurisdiction was S. Quirico d' Orcia, and that Gualdanus 
comes Volterranorum, whom we have already mentioned. See Santini, Studi, 
etc., op. cit. pp. 73, 74. 



ch. xni] RAINALD OF COLOGNE 159 

them to assert their authority over certain limited areas 1 ; but 
none of them had confined their activities within those areas. 
To meet this state of affairs, Rainald seems to have adopted 
the expedient of treating the communes in their corporate 
capacities as so many officials of the Empire whose business it 
was to assist the potesta in the performance of their duties. 
Thus, for example, by the concordia of the 10th of July, 1162, 
stipulated in the name of the Emperor between the Archchan- 
cellor and the commune of Lucca, it was agreed that, in return 
for an annual tribute of four hundred pounds of gold, all the 
Imperial regalia except the fodrum should be left in the hands of 
the citizens, who, for their part, swore to assist the Emperor 
loyally in the defence and preservation of his crown, his honour, 
the city of Lucca, its contado y and of all the Imperial regalia 
within and without the walls, and to aid him to collect the 
fodrum in the diocese and contado y whenever they should be 
thereto requested by a properly authorized missus. In other 
words, the jurisdiction of the commune, if only as the agent 
of the Emperor, was recognized over the whole of its contado 
and diocese. The Florentine consuls were present at the rati- 
fication of the agreement; and, although the concordia with 
Lucca is the only one which has come down to us, it is prac- 
tically certain that similar conventions were entered into with 
other cities 2 . For a time, the relations between the German 
potesta and the communes became less strained, and had it 
not been for one fatal defect, the system introduced by Rainald 
might well have achieved all that he hoped from it. In the 
concordia with Lucca no reference had been made to the great 
feudatories whose domains were situated within the diocese. 
According to feudal law they held direct from the Emperor and 
owed no allegiance to any other. Even had he desired to do so, 
it was beyond the power of the Archchancellor to give the 

1 See, for example, the privilegiwn of Frederick to the Sienese in 1158 
(R. Arch, di Stato in Siena, Caleffo Vecchio, c ta 8, 8*) and the diploma granted 
by Guelf to the Lucchesi in 1160 (Tommasi, Sommario di Storia Lucchese, 
ubi cit. p. 32). 

2 Tommasi, Sommario della Storia di Lucca, ubi cit. p. 33 ; Santini, op. cit. 
p. 71. The document is published in M.G.S. Legum (Sectio iv, T. 1), p. 302. 



160 RAINALD OF COLOGNE [ch. 

communes authority over them. He therefore simply ignored 
the matter. The citizens, on the other hand, assumed that there 
were no implied exceptions, and pretended to exercise juris- 
diction over every foot of their contadi by whomsoever occupied. 

During the whole of his sojourn in Tuscany, Rainald received 
unwavering support and assistance from Pisa, and when, in the 
spring of 1163, he journeyed through Tuscany, Romagna and 
the March, collecting tribute from the cities — "tributa et dona 
plurima et infinitam pecuniam " — and compelling the bishops to 
swear obedience to the Antipope Victor, he was accompanied by 
a Pisan consul and two Pisan jurisconsults. Marangone attri- 
butes the success of his mission to the fear inspired by the power 
of the commune. In September Rainald returned to Pisa, "et 
in ecclesia Sanctae Mariae laudes magnas contulit Deo et im- 
peratori Frederico et pisano populo de tanto honore quod ei 
dedit, timore Imperatoris, et obtentu pisani populi 1 ." After 
holding a Diet of the representatives of all the Tuscan cities at 
Sarzana he rejoined the Emperor in Lombardy; and, a month 
later, at Lodi, the Pisan and Genoese ambassadors were ordered 
to make ready their fleets for the Sicilian expedition in the 
following spring (1164). It had been Frederick's intention to 
come himself to Pisa to superintend the final preparations; 
but, owing to his illness, that enterprise was once more delayed, 
and Rainald was ordered to return to Tuscany 2 . 

Meanwhile, however, Archbishop Villano had reappeared in 
Pisa, and although it is certain that he did not follow the ex- 
ample of those Tuscan prelates who had acknowledged the 
Antipope, he appears to have been allowed to exercise his epis- 
copal functions without molestation. At Eastertide Pisa was 
deprived of the usual baptismal rites because her Archbishop 
refused to receive the Sacred Chrism at the hands of Victor, 
and, although the Archchancellor himself entered the city on 
Easter Eve, no steps seem to have been taken against Villano 3 . 
It is moreover curious to note that when, a little later, a Diet 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 32, 33. 2 Ibid. pp. 33, 34. 

3 Ibid. p. 34. As to the administration of baptism on the Vigil of Easter, 
during the Middle Ages, compare L. Zdekauer, La vita privata dei Senesi 
net Dugento (Siena, Tip. Lazzeri, 1896), p. 9. 



xiii] RAINALD OF COLOGNE 161 

of all the Consuls, Counts and Valvassors of Tuscany assembled 
at Borgo S„ Genesio, under the presidency of Rainald, the re- 
cusant Archbishop was not only permitted to take his seat 
among the representatives of Pisa, but did so with the good- 
will of the Commune — "cum amore civitatis 1 ." An able man 
was Rainald, "more imperial than the Emperor" it may be 2 , 
but high enough up in the ecclesiastical hierarchy to be able to 
wink with his brother augurs, and a good deal more of a states- 
man than a priest. His role was that of a conciliator, and he 
was quite prepared to be blind to Villano's insubordination, if 
anything could be gained by such a course. In any other city 
it might have been dangerous, but, in Pisa, where loyalty to 
the Empire was little less than a religion, it could be safely 
ignored. Everything was being done that could be done to 
further the Emperor's administrative reforms and to prepare 
for the Sicilian expedition 3 . If the Archbishop were given rope 
enough, he was quite likely to hang himself. Why then hasten 
the denoument at the manifest risk of arousing popular sym- 
pathy and indignation ? 

While the Diet of S. Genesio was yet in session, news came 
that Victor had died at Lucca. Rainald hastened thither and, 
without consulting the Emperor, caused the schismatic car- 
dinals to elect a new Antipope. Their choice fell on Guido of 
Crema, who was proclaimed as Paschal III ; and the Lucchesi, 
both priests and laymen, were ordered to assemble in public 
parliament and to make oath to obey him and to hold him "pro 
papa catholico 4 ." The reasons which led Rainald to such pre- 
cipitate action are unknown to us. Though Archbishop-elect of 
Cologne since 1158, he had postponed his consecration in 
hopes of being able to receive it from a Pope of unquestioned 
authority; Frederick himself had for some time been anxious 
to put an end to the schism, and, so far as we know, his principal 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 34. 

2 "Piu imperiale dell' imperatore." The phrase is Gregorovius' {op. cit, 

II, 557)- 

3 "Praedicti consules x galeas eo anno fecerunt et quatuor dermones pro 
equis portandis in exercitu Imperatoris facere inceperunt." 

4 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 35. 



i62 RAINALD OF COLOGNE [ch. 

advisors were of the same mind 1 . He, nevertheless, accepted 
the election of Paschal as a fait accompli. 

From Lucca, Rainald returned to S. Genesio, where the sit- 
tings of the Diet were resumed. It was, however, daily be- 
coming more and more obvious that the new system of ad- 
ministration which he had inaugurated was not working satis- 
factorily. The concessions that had been made to the cities had 
not gained their goodwill. They had accepted them on the 
principle that half a loaf is better than no bread, but they had 
by no means abandoned their aspirations to complete autonomy. 
Many even of the Consuls were secretly in sympathy with 
Alexander, and the native Counts and minor vassals openly 
manifested their dislike for the German potesta, against whose 
rapacity and violence they found it no easy matter to defend 
their immunities. On taking counsel with Rainald, who after 
the dissolution of the Diet of S. Genesio had once more re- 
turned to Lombardy, Frederick reached the conclusion that 
any further attempt to conciliate the cities would be mere waste 
of time and labour, and resolved, from thenceforward, to rely 
exclusively upon the feudatories of the Empire, among whom he 
of course reckoned the faithful Pisa. Fresh privileges were 
granted to the Guidi and the Alberti 2 ; and, in the following 
autumn, another distinguished prelate, Christian, nominated 
a little later Archbishop of Mayence, succeeded Rainald as 
Frederick's representative in Tuscany. Accompanied by the 
Antipope, he entered Pisa on the 30th of November, the day 
of St Andrew the Apostle 3 . 

Violent and mercenary, Christian seems to have possessed 
none of the virtues enumerated by St Paul as necessary for 
him who "seeketh the office of a bishop," and we can hardly 
wonder that the good Muratori continually speaks of him in 
terms of disapproval. The maxims of the Apostolic age had, 
however, been forgotten long ago, and from the eleventh cen- 
tury to the fifteenth, a bishopric was commonly regarded by 
the religious as one of the surest roads to damnation; bishops 

1 Hodgson, op. cit. p. 274. 2 Santini, op. cit. pp. 77-79. 

3 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 38. 



xiii] RAINALD OF COLOGNE 163 

lay in hell like sheep 1 , and Frederick's great ecclesiastical states- 
men and generals were, probably, neither better nor worse than 
their brother prelates. Christian at any rate served his master 
zealously, and he is described by the chroniclers as the most 
capable man of that age whether in political or military affairs. 
He spoke six languages, was as fine a horseman as any knight of 
the period, wore a cuirass beneath a cloak of hyacinth colour, 
and, because shedding of blood was forbidden to churchmen, 
he carried a huge mace in place of a spear or sword. With it he 
had killed ten enemies. In his license and in his magnificence 
he was a typical bishop-baron. His mistresses and his horses 
alone cost him more than the whole of his court cost the Em- 
peror 2 . 

The moderation of Rainald had, as we have seen, enabled 
him to reconcile a vigorous imperial policy with tacit conces- 
sions to the sentiments of respect and affection which the 
citizens entertained for their Archbishop ; but with the advent 
of Christian all such temporising ceased. He was no Naaman 
to bow himself in the house of Rimmon for the sake of ex- 
pediency; Villano must either acknowledge the Antipope or 
leave Pisa, and he accordingly retired to the island of Gorgona, 
consoled, it would seem, by the moral solidarity of his clergy 
and the sympathy of his flock 3 . The phraseology of Marangone : 

1 Franciscan records tell how a thirteenth century scholar of Paris, being 
led down into hell in a vision, asked news of his lately deceased uncle the 
Bishop. The demon replied, " I know him not: so many Bishops come hither 
daily that I wot not of whom thou speakest." See Coulton, From St Francis 
to Dante (2nd edition), pp. 95 and 284; Ferrers Howell, S. Bernardino of 
Siena (Methuen, 191 3), pp. 164-167, and my Palio and Ponte, p. 73. 

2 Lanzani, Storia dei Comuni Italiani, op. cit. p. 254, note 4. Compare 
Gregorovius, Storia della Cittd di Roma, op. cit. vol. 11, lib. vni, c. vi, § 3, 
p. 587. Christian, was in fact, one of those warrior-priests whom the medi- 
aeval ballad writers delighted to satirise : 

Pro virga ferunt lanceam, 
pro infula galeam, 
clipeum pro stola... 
{Carmina Bur ana, 15, cited by Bartoli, Storia della Lett. Ital., op. cit. I, 283). 

3 See the letter of Cardinal Otto of Brescia to Thomas Becket — Materials 
for the History of Thomas Becket (Rolls Series), vol. v, epist. lxxxii, pp. 158, 

159 — " Archiepiscopus recessit, clerus aufugit, totus populus ipsum Guido- 
nem contemnit." 

11 — 2 



1 64 RAINALD OF COLOGNE [ch. 

"cuius adventu Villanus Pisanorum archiepiscopus, quianole- 
bat ei obedire, secessit ad Gorgonam," might seem to imply 
that his departure was more or less voluntary; but the docu- 
ments leave no doubt about the matter. He was, in fact, ex- 
pelled by the Consuls 1 : an act, in view of the impending war 
with Genoa, of sound imperial policy, but, none the less for 
that, a rebellion of vassals against their seignior 2 . This, it will 
be remembered, was the time when the Pisans were bargaining 
with Christian for the investiture of Sardinia 3 , and doubtless 
the banishment of Villano was made a condition precedent to 
any consideration of their claims. Moreover, the Consuls were 
tired of their subjection to the Archbishop. He had grown in 
power as the Commune had grown 4 , and, at first, he had been 
useful and even necessary to its development. When, however, 
by the Imperial diploma of 1162, the Pisans, in their corporate 
capacity, had obtained admission to the feudal hierarchy 5 , they 
no longer needed his services. The episcopal aegis which had 
served to protect the nascent republic had now become an 
obstacle to its further growth. 

In May, 11 65, a great Diet was held at Wiirzburg, where all 
the princes of the Empire, lay and clerical, swore to be faithful 
to Paschal and never to recognize Alexander. It was Christian's 
mission to enforce the decrees of the Diet in Central Italy, 
and, after conducting Paschal to Viterbo, he passed into the 
Roman Campagna at the head of an army, forcing the popula- 

1 "...a tempore expulsionis domini Villani"..."de civitate pisana iussione 
consulum recessit," etc. See Volpe, op. cit. p. 196, note 3. 

2 See p. 60 supra. 
8 P. 155 supra. 

4 Volpe, op. cit. p. 186: "Quando si vorra rifare la storia delle giuris- 
dizioni temporali dei Vescovi in Italia, bisognera comprendere in essa tutti 
i dignitari di tale grado, perche tutti piu o meno — anche la dove piu si e 
soliti non veder quasi traccia di diritti e poteri giurisdizionali del Vescovo... 
ebbero una note vole ingerenza negli affari del Comune, eliminata tuttavia 
sempre piu, a mano a mano che esso conquistava la propria autonomia civile 
...Qui [cioe in Toscana] le giurisdizioni vescovili non precedono, come general- 
mente si dice, il Comune, ma ne accompagnano il nascimento e lo sviluppo, con- 
formandosi da esso, acquistando maggiore o minor e ampiezza a seconda delta 
maggiore e minor for z a vitale del comune stesso. Sono due istituziord che vivono 
accanto, svolgendosi in correlazione, ingerendosi V una nelle cose delV altra " 

5 Compare H. W. C. Davis, Medieval Europe, p. 92. 



xiii] RAINALD OF COLOGNE 165 

tion to swear obedience to the Emperor and the Antipope. He 
was, however, unable to enter Rome, and, in August, after 
eluding the vigilance of the Pisan fleet 1 , Alexander landed at 
Messina. Thence he was convoyed to the mouth of the Tiber by 
Sicilian galleys, and, in November, was once more installed in 
the Lateran. Christian's mission had failed completely, and it 
was resolved to take immediate steps to force Alexander to abdi- 
cate. In October, 1166, Frederick once more invaded Italy; in 
November, at Lodi, the Italian dignitaries followed the example 
of Germany by swearing to the Wiirzburg decrees, and, in 
March, 1167, Rainald reappeared in Pisa. 

Heretofore, as we have seen, he had dealt gently with Villano ; 
but he was now convinced that nothing but vigorous measures 
i could put an end to the schism. At the Diet of Wiirzburg he 
had been one of the first to take the oaths, and he had con- 
sented to accept consecration at the hands of an adherent of 
Paschal. At his bidding, the Pisan Consuls swore to join the 
"felicem exercitum ,, which the Emperor was preparing for the 
following summer; to hold Pope Paschal "pro catholico," and 
to compel all the clergy of Pisa to swear to obey him, to refuse 
to receive Villano unless he was prepared to make submission, 
and to elect another Archbishop in his stead. Accordingly, on 
the 25th of March, Benincasa, a canon of S. Maria Maggiore, 
was chosen to fill the vacant see. Accompanied by two of 
the Consuls and by "wise men," both clerical and lay, he 
betook himself to Pope Paschal, and, on Easter Eve, received 
consecration at his hands, returning with great honour to Pisa 
on Easter Monday. He was promptly excommunicated by 
Rolando "qui papa Alexander vocatur 2 ." 

More fortunate than his brother bishop, Ranieri of Siena, 
who died in exile "expulsus a scismaticis 3 ," Villano was per- 
mitted to return to his see a few years later; but the temporal 
authority of the Pisan Archbishops had received an irreparable 
shock. Already, in 11 63, the Consuls had laid hands upon the 



1 Muratori, Annali a" Italia, ad ann. 2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 47. 

3 R. Davidsohn, Siena interdetta sotto un papa senese, in Bullettino Senese 
di Storia Patria, v (1898), 63-70. 



166 RAINALD OF COLOGNE [ch. 

riparian dues which formed part of the episcopal revenues and 
had used them for the benefit of the Commune 1 ; while no 
sooner had Villano retired to Gorgona than all those who held 
lands from the Archbishopric by precarious tenures hastened 
to appropriate them "dolo malo ac violenter," refusing to pay 
rent and transmitting them to their heirs as though they had, 
in fact, been seized of the realty. They maintained the legality 
of their usurpations before the Courts on the ground of pre- 
scription, and, because the syndic of the Archbishop did not 
appear, sentences of contumacy were passed against Villano 2 . 
A little later, in order to pay certain debts which one of the 
Consuls had been obliged to incur with Pisan merchants and 
bankers in Provence, a commission was appointed to appraise 
the possessions of the Archbishop with a view to their sequestra- 
tion 3 . As security for other debts, the Consuls, on the 7th of 
March, 1166, gave to Marzucco di Gaetano 4 and Alberto di 
Barioco all that appertained to the Archbishop in the castello, 
court and district of Piombino, and, in compensation for the 
expenses which the custody of the place must necessarily entail, 
the entire tribute until the extinction of the debt 5 . It was, how- 
ever, in the contado that consular usurpations were destined to 
produce the most lasting effects. Over many of the towns and 
villages the Pisan Church had heretofore enjoyed undisputed 
dominion, possessing not only " droit seigneurial" but "droit 
fonder," and exercising both High and Low Justice. The title 
of Vicecomes or Vicedominns, which during the second half of 
the twelfth century was assumed by the ancient sindacus of the 
Archbishop, is not without significance 6 , and the Consuls not 

1 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, I, 39 (Breve Consilium, ann. mclxiv): "...et uni- 
versum redditum ripae quam archiepiscopus detinuit, in ipso Podio [ValHs 
Sercli] construendo expendere faciam...." 

2 As to the procedure in episcopal causes, see Bonaini, Statuti inediti, 1 
{Breve Consulum), 9, 31, 32, and 11 (Constitutum usus), 848. 

3 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 196, 197, and authorities there cited. 

4 Marzucco was several times Consul ; he is frequently mentioned in the 
Pisan chronicles (e.g. Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 37, 49, 60) and we have already- 
seen him acting in the capacity of emissary to Barisone. 

5 Arch, di Stato in Pisa, Atti pubblici, 7 Marzo, 1166, cited by Volpe, 
ot>. cit. p. 197. See also Bonaini, Statuti inediti, I, 38. 

6 See Bonaini, Statuti inediti, 1, 31, 32, and 11, 848, 849. 



xiii] RAINALD OF COLOGNE 167 

unnaturally regarded the existence of such an imperium in im- 
perio with increasing disfavour. They were determined to co- 
operate, by means of the officials of the Commune, in the 
exercise of ecclesiastical justice, in the same way as, under the 
reforms of Rainald, the Imperial ministers had co-operated with 
those of the cities in the administration of the country districts ; 
and thenceforward, the Treguani of the Republic showed them- 
selves reluctant to give way to the Vicecomites of the Arch- 
bishop. Of the conflicts produced by this mixed jurisdiction 
we obtain a clear idea from a document of the following cen- 
tury which, however, records events that took place when 
Ubaldo occupied the Pisan see (1175). 

The document in question contains the depositions of various 
witnesses with regard to the archiepiscopal possessions of Nu- 
vola, Villa di Abbazia, Cugnano, Cafaggio, etc., in the Colline 
Livornesi. From it we learn that, when a crime had been com- 
mitted, either the Visconte (vicecomes) of the Archbishop or 
the Treguano of the Commune, whichever arrived first upon 
the scene or first captured the offender, was entitled to deal 
with the case. So soon as either of them had given judgment 
or had even arrested the criminal, the jurisdiction of the other 
was ipso facto ousted. In consequence of an affray between 
certain consorti of Cafaggio and others of the neighbourhood, 
the Visconte Enrico di Montemagno sequestered their property 
and took the culprits to Nuvola "pro vindicta facienda"; and 
there one of the witnesses " vidit eos ligatos tunc ad columnam 
Curiae Archiepiscopi que est in Nubila." In a case of malicious 
wounding at Nuvola, the Treguano of the Commune hastened 
thither and had already begun to pull down the house of the 
delinquent when Archbishop Ubaldo arrived and put a stop 
to the demolition on the ground that his representative had 
previously taken the house as security, "non contradicente sibi 
suprascripto treguano vel aliqua persona." In short, at Nuvola, 
Abbazia, Cugnano, etc., it is common report " that, if the Arch- 
bishop or his nuncio takes upon himself to do justice, the Pisan 
Commune or its agents do not intervene, and vice versa" \ and 
this rule, according to another witness, was observed "et alibi 



1 68 RAINALD OF COLOGNE [ch. 

in terris archiepiscopatus." Nevertheless, the officials of the 
two powers sometimes disputed one another's jurisdiction and 
even came to blows, and that in the presence of the poor wretch 
who was about to become the subject of their so dispassionate 
justice. Thus, upon one occasion, when certain brothers of 
Cafaggio, who had been guilty of wounding, were brought to 
Nuvola and tied to the customary column, the Treguano 
Buonaggiunta arrived too late, and full of despite against the 
Visconte who had forestalled him, "multa verba cum eo inde 
habuit in Nubila et ad spatas inde etiam venerunt." It was, as 
one sees, a curious method of enforcing the lav/, or, to speak 
more correctly, the will of the rival authorities 1 . 

Thus, long before it was able to establish its own exclusive 
jurisdiction in the towns and villages of the contado, the Com- 
mune associated itself with the Archbishop in the exercise of 
his authority. Nor does there seem to have been any explicit 
regulation of their respective spheres of action. Certain it is 
that, in after years, their not always peaceful rivalry was trans- 
muted into open and violent antagonism. The poet's vision of 
Ugolino gnawing on the head of Ruggieri is but a later mani- 
festation of ancient enmity, immortalised by its transference to 
the after-life 2 . 

Meanwhile, the quarrel between the Archbishop and the 
Consuls was complicated by and interwoven with another quar- 
rel between the Archbishop and the Cathedral Chapter, pro- 
voked, it would seem, by the pride and obstinacy of Villano, 
who desired to deprive the Canons of time-honoured privileges 
which rendered them a practically autonomous college. Most 
of the Canons were members of the Consular families of Pisa 
and strong in their wealth, and in the support of their kinsmen, 
they presented a solid front to the aggressions of the Archbishop. 
He, on the other hand, asserted that the Cathedral was built 
upon land belonging to the Archbishopric and laid claim to all 

1 Arch. Mensa Arciv., Pisa, perg. n. 831, 9 luglio 1222. For this reference 
I am indebted to Professor Volpe, as also for my account of the document. 
See Volpe, op. cit. pp. 198, 199. 

2 Inferno, xxxn, 125. 



PLATE XI 




— -^- 



PORTA A DESTRA DELLA FACCIATA. CATTEDRALE 
Giovanni da Bologna 



PLATE XII 




9 CO 

S fa 
Q O 



xiii] RAINALD OF COLOGNE 169 

the rights which such a fact might be held to entail. This, of 
course, once more brought him into conflict with the Com- 
mune which regarded the Mother Church of the city as its 
own : Ecclesia beatae Mariae Vir girds Pisanae civitatis 1 . Nor is 
it without significance that that Benincasa who supplanted 
Villano n the Archbishopric was selected from among the 
Canons of the Cathedral 2 . 

1 Such was the case in nearly all the cities of Italy. Compare my A History 
of Perugia, p. 353. 

2 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 184, 185, and authorities there cited. 



CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH 
GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA 

On the 17th of May, 1 165, just one month after Frederick had 
annulled the investiture of Barisone of Arborea and granted 
Sardinia to Pisa 1 , there was a sea-fight between the Pisans and 
Genoese in the Bay of Porto Venere. In the previous February 
news had reached Genoa that a Genoese merchantman return- 
ing from Ceuta had been shipwrecked off Asinara and captured 
by the Pisans. The truce between the Communes was still 
nominally in force, and ambassadors were forthwith sent to the 
Emperor, " conquerentes de treugua quam Pisani fregerant." 
The adjustment of the matter was entrusted to Conrad, 
Frederick's chaplain, and the representatives of Pisa and Genoa 
met in the island of Palmaria 2 . A long and acrimonious debate 
followed 3 , and, unfortunately, when the exasperation of both 
parties was at its height, the galley of the notorious corsair 
Trapilicini entered the Bay of Porto Venere 4 . Formerly a Pisan 
subject, Trapilicini was now in the service of Genoa, and the 
Pisans would have given a good deal to lay their hands on him. 
The Genoese Consul seems to have endeavoured to pour oil on 
the troubled waters, but he received no assistance from Trapi- 
licini himself who told the Pisans to their faces that he was 
setting out "pro capiendis vestris et vestrorum rebus et per- 
sonis, et pro nasis obtruncandis vestratum, nisi cum consule 
Ianue concordiam feceritis." That night a messenger was se- 
cretly sent to Pisa, and a galley was fitted out in all haste for 
the capture of the pirate: "Anno Domini mclxvi, decimosexto 

1 See p. 155 supra. 

2 "...habentes simul colloquium in insula ad sanctum Iohannem." Com- 
pare Repetti, Dizionario, cited, II, 606. 

3 See Oberti Cancellarii Annales lanuenses, pp. 170-175. 

4 Trapilicini is mentioned in the Breve Consilium of 11 64 (Bonaini, Statuti 
inediti, I, 24): "...exceptis illis qui sceleratissimum et abhominabile in navi 
Trapilicini de Saracenis maleficium commiserunt. ,, 



1 165] GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA 171 

Kal. Iunii. Pisanorum Consules miserunt unam galeam bene 
armatam ad Portum Veneris, pro capienda galea Trapilicini; 
quam galeam pisana galea viriliter expugnavit, et earn cepisset 
nisi Consul Ianuensium, qui ibi erat cum Uguccione, Pisanorum 
Consule, pro pace componenda, in auxilium Trapilicini cum 
buthettis et aliis navibus super Pisanorum galeam occurrisset 1 ." 
According to Oberto Cancelliere, who gives a long and detailed 
account of the battle 2 , the Pisans, so far from capturing Trapi- 
licini, were themselves captured by the Genoese, and though 
such of them as had come " pro pace " were permitted to return 
to their homes, the Pisan galley was taken in triumph to Genoa. 
War followed, and in July the Pisans armed ten galleys, seven 
of which steered southward towards Sicily "pro Ianuensibus 
capiendis " ; and, off the island of Ischia, they took a galliot and 
other ships. The remaining three galleys "went to Provence, 
and captured a great Genoese ship with all her cargo, and very 
many other ships and seven Genoese buthettos coming from 
Spain; and so, with much honour and with thirty-seven great 
citizens of Genoa whom they had taken prisoners, they returned 
to Pisa on the 21st of July." While they were in Provencal 
waters, they had, however, narrowly escaped being surprised 
by a Genoese fleet of fourteen galleys which had been sent to 
intercept them under the command of the Consul Amico Grillo. 
Learning that they had ascended the Rhone to St Gilles, he 
followed them thither and would certainly have captured them 
had they not been warned betimes of his coming and made 
good their escape through another branch of the delta 3 . The 
Genoese thereupon burned some unladen merchantmen which 
were lying at the wharves of St Gilles, with the result that, 
when a little later they desired to victual their galleys there, 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 40. 

2 Oberti Cancellarii Annales Ianuenses, pp. 175-178. 

3 Now that we are no longer dependent upon Caffaro for the Genoese side 
of the story, we find the chroniclers of the two cities in substantial agree- 
ment. Between the accounts of this war given by Marangone (pp. 41-43) 
and Oberto Cancelliere (pp. 180, 181) there is scarcely more discrepancy 
than exists between the three Synoptic Gospels; a fact which goes far to 
justify the belief I have already expressed in the substantial accuracy of the 
Cronaca Pisana. 



172 GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA [ch.xiv 

" homines sancti Egidii queque necessaria illis prohibuerunt. ,, 
They returned to Genoa on the ist of August. A few days 
afterwards, a fleet of thirty-one Pisan galleys sailed for Corsica; 
they ravaged Cap Corse {Caput Corsi), and then, standing across 
the Ligurian Sea to Albenga, took it by storm and burned it to 
the ground (21 August) 1 . Leaving nothing but smoking ruins 
behind them, they once more put out to sea, and falling in with 
a richly laden fleet of twenty-eight merchantmen on their way 
to Genoa, captured them all ; "and," says Marangone, " through 
all the Genoese Riviera even unto Montpellier, they destroyed 
very many ships." 

Meanwhile, the Genoese, "valde irati" at the burning of 
Albenga, equipped some forty- five or fifty galleys and went in 
search of the Pisan raiders. Learning that they had entered the 
Rhone "per fauces Caprae 2 " and were lying at anchor at St 
Gilles, they rowed up the river after them, and, with the inten- 
tion, it would seem, of delivering a night attack, continued to 
press on after the sun had gone down. When, however, they 
were between Fourques (Furcas) and St Gilles, with scarcely 
more than a mile to go, some of the galleys ran aground, and 
those that followed, crashing into them in the dark, broke many 
of their oars. In the morning, before they could clear away the 
wreckage, they were informed by the magistrates of St Gilles 
that, if they violated the neutrality of that city, the inhabitants 
would not hesitate to join forces with the Pisans. The Genoese 
thereupon sent ambassadors to Raymond of Toulouse, "comes 
sancti Egidii," who was then at Beaucaire 3 , promising to pay 
him one thousand three hundred marks if he would aid them 
against their enemies. Each of the Communes had its own 
partisans in Provence. At Narbonne, the Viscountess Ermen- 
gard was favourable to Pisa, while Raymond leaned towards 
Genoa 4 . His friendship, however, was not proof against cor- 

1 Oberto Cancelliere is our authority for this fact: "quam igne com- 
busserunt et destruxerunt." Caffaro would have carefully kept silence. 

2 Namely that mouth of the Rhone which was known as le grau de la 
chevre. See Belgrano, Annali Genovesi, etc., op. cit. vol. i, p. 180, note 1. 

3 The city of Aucassin and Nicolete. 

4 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 236 n. 



1165] GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA 173 

ruption, and although he accepted the offer of the Genoese, he 
did not scruple to betray them as soon as the Pisans made a 
higher bid for his assistance. Relying upon his co-operation, 
the Genoese landed in the territory of St Gilles and attacked 
the Pisans. Oberto Cancelliere says that the battle was stopped 
by the coming on of night. Marangone, on the other hand, 
speaks of a Pisan victory: "Magnum bellum in terra iuxta 
Rodanum fecerunt, et gratia Dei Pisani vicerunt illos: de quo 
bello multi Ianuenses capti et interfecti sunt, et omnia moenia 
eorum destruxere." There is nothing necessarily inconsistent 
in the two narratives ; and if the Provencals ranged themselves 
on the side of the Pisans, the defeat of the Genoese is not to 
be wondered at. Nevertheless, it is by no means necessary to 
postulate a Pisan victory in order to account for the departure 
of the Genoese. The news that the Pisans were arming twenty 
galleys for a raid on Genoa itself was alone enough to make 
them hurry home again. " Iudicio Dei marisque," that raid was 
never made ; for, when the Pisans were off the promontory of 
Portofino, a sudden tempest drove them southward to Porto 
Venere. There they landed, and after devastating the country up 
to the walls of the town, returned to Pisa on the 7th of September. 
Finding that there was as yet no news from Provence, they 
equipped a second expedition of twenty-five galleys, and once 
more started for Genoa. On the 13th they reached Levanto 
and burned the unwalled suburbs, though there seems to have 
been no attempt to take the fortress (castrum) 1 . Then another 
violent storm forced them to abandon all hopes of reaching 
Genoa, and they ran for shelter to the Bay of Porto Venere. 
"Vix cum magno labore reversi sunt," says Marangone. They 
disembarked, first on the Island of Palmaria and then on the 
mainland, but retired to their ships when the Marquis Mala- 
spina and the men of Vezzano came to the help of the Porto- 
veneresi. 



1 Manfroni (op. cit. p. 237) asserts that the Pisans " distrussero il castello 
di Levanto"; but the sources do not bear him out. Manfroni (p. 42) tells us 
that "totum in circuito devastaverunt," and Oberto Cancelliere (p. 186) that 
"burgum igne combusserunt." The castello was evidently not destroyed 



174 GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA [ch.xiv 

Other episodes of this war were the capture, off Elba, on the 
day of St Michael the Archangel, of a richly-laden Genoese 
merchantman coming from Alexandria 1 ; the burning of the 
Pisan quarter in Torres by three Genoese galleys under the 
eyes of the Pisan Consul 2 , and finally, the destruction of a large 
part of the Pisan fleet as it was returning from Provence. Driven 
out to sea by a terrible tempest which began on the 29th of 
October and raged with unabated fury for two days and nights, 
some of the galleys foundered in mid-ocean, others were ship- 
wrecked on the shores of Sardinia and Corsica, and one, which 
succeeded in reaching the coast of Africa, was captured by 
pirates and taken to Bugia, where most of the crew were mur- 
dered in cold blood. Of thirty-one galleys, nineteen only re- 
turned to Pisa 3 . According to Oberto Cancelliere, the Genoese 
displayed a chivalrous desire not to take advantage of the mis- 
fortunes of their enemies. " Having taken counsel, we sent (he 
says) to Pisa that we were grieved at their unheard of calamity, 
and, lest they should deem that our pride was thereby exalted, 
we were content, if it so pleased them, to abide by the con- 
ventions entered into at Lerici [sic] between us and them 4 ." 
Probably, however, the altruism of the Genoese was not so 
great as the annalist would have us believe. Ever since the 
collision between the followers of Falco di Castello and Rolando 
Awocato, the city had been torn by intestine discords, and 
now things had come to such a pass that the whole thought of 
the magistrates was " how they nvght best, if not altogether at 
least in part, extinguish civil war 5 ." 

The overtures of the Genoese therefore met with no response 
and the Pisans set about repairing their losses with admirable 
energy. More than thirty-six thousand pounds were borrowed 



1 "Unam navem Ianuensium et burgensium Panormi, venientem de 
Alexandria." 

2 Oberti Cancellarii Annates Ianuenses, p. 185. 

3 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 43. 

4 P. 187. The words "factum ad Ilicem" are evidently a slip of the pen. 
What are referred to are obviously the negotiations at Porto Venere in the 
preceding May. No conventions had been entered into at Lerici. 

6 Oberti Cancellarii Annates Ianuenses, p. 187. 



n66] GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA 175 

by the Consuls, and during the ensuing year (1166) no fewer 
than forty-seven galleys were equipped. Hostilities re-opened 
in Sardinian waters, and, on the 23rd of May, a great ship 
which the Genoese had sent to Oristano "to carry merchandise 
for the payment of the debt of the Judge of Arborea" was cap- 
tured by the Pisans. On the 24th, off Capocaccia, they inter- 
cepted another richly-laden merchantman from Garbo (Al- 
garve); "and so they returned to Pisa with honour and great 
glory and triumph." Marangone estimates the value of the two 
prizes at over eight thousand pounds 1 . In June news came that 
the Genoese had dispatched eight galleys under the command 
of the Consul Recalcato, "pro subiuganda Sardinia," and 
seventeen galleys were sent in pursuit of them. The enemy were 
sighted off the coast of Cagliari, but succeeded in making good 
their escape, "usque Ianuam " according to Marangone. Oberto 
Cancelliere, however, tells us that, when Recalcato had out- 
distanced the Pisan galleys with as much ease as if they had 
been heavily laden merchantmen, he steered for Porto Pisano 
and " combussit ibi naves 2 ." And here it may be remarked that 
it is by no means impossible that the assertion of the Genoese 
annalist is true and that the Genoese galleys actually " dimiserunt 
illas Pisanorum tamquam ligna aliquibus mercibus honerata." 
Only when the rowers were comparatively fresh, was it possible 
for the galley to obtain a high rate of speed, and if, as appears to 
have been the case, the Genoese were riding at anchor when 
they were sighted by the Pisans, already wearied with rowing, 
it would have been strange indeed had they failed to draw 
away from their pursuers 3 . In any case, the raid on Porto 
Pisano, if it ever took place, was the only success that the 
Genoese could boast during the whole of 11 66. A short truce 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 43 : " quae naves plus octo milibus libris valuere." 

2 Oberti Cancellarii Annales Ianuenses, p. 191. 

3 "The speed of a galley was calculated by the French engineer Forfait 
to be in the most favourable circumstances, that is to say in a flat calm, but 
four and a half knots for the first hour, and two and a quarter to one and a 
half miles per hour for subsequent hours ; the exhaustion of the rowers con- 
sequent on their arduous toil would not admit of a greater speed than this." 
See E. Hamilton Currey, Sea Wolves of the Mediterranean (Nelson and Sons), 
p. 250. 



176 GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA [ch.xiv 

followed, during which the representatives of the two Com- 
munes met at Porto Venere, but were unable to come to any 
agreement, and the war was renewed with fresh violence. 

On the 25th of July seven Pisan galleys encountered a like 
number of Genoese galleys off the Island of Elba, and, after a 
furious battle, took two of them and put the rest to flight. The 
loss of the Genoese was very heavy ; many were slain with the 
sword, many drowned, and no fewer than three hundred and 
twenty were taken prisoners. Meanwhile, five Pisan galleys had 
been sent to Provence, where "they took forty ships both great 
and small, and burned them all with fire and sank them in the 
abyss of the sea; and so, with forty Genoese prisoners and two 
thousand five hundred pounds of good money, they returned 
to Pisa with triumph and great joy, on the 4th of August 1 ." 

"Now, when the Genoese had heard of the victory which 
the seven Pisan galleys had gotten on their galleys and of the 
five galleys which had gone to Provence and of the great damage 
that they did, they were vehemently moved at that shame and 
loss ; and incontinently they manned six galleys with the noblest 
and bravest of Genoa, whereof Baldovino Guercio was captain." 
And "when they could not find the Pisans in Provence, they 
went to Corsica and through all the islands, seeking them; and 
so they came to Elba." There they were joined by a galley of 
Porto Maurizio; and "when they were nigh unto Vada, six 
Pisan galleys issued forth against them, and they fled before 
them. Whereupon, another galley, which was at Castiglione 2 , 
beholding their flight, hasted and came to the help of the six 
galleys. And for well nigh twenty miles did the Genoese 
craftily (dolose) flee before the Pisans across the open sea, until, 
at the last, Baldovino Guercio with his men turned, raging for 
battle, upon the pursuers. Then, prow to prow, the seven Pisan 
galleys and the seven Genoese galleys shocked together; long 
and doubtful was the battle, and many on either side were slain 
and wounded. Yet, in the end, by the grace and power of God, 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 44,45. 

2 Castiglione Mondiglio, now Castiglioncello di Rosignano. See Repetti, 
Dizionario, 1, 591. 



«66] GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA I?7 
the Pisan galleys conquered the galleys of the Genoese; and two 

iel2TLT uied ' wh r in were Baidovin ° Gu - i0 2 

the best of the Genoese ; and many of them they slew with the 
sword. The other five galleys fled away" (aoth Augulrt The 
annahst teHs us that the dissensions which rent the citfof Genoa 
were equally vxoknt on board the galleys-" sicut odium era 

orobaM T " 'I **** ^ ** deSmi ° n ° f Bald ovbo was 
probably due rather to treachery than fear. Yet the fact re- 
mams that for Pisa the year i x66 was a year of almost unbroken 
vie ory, and Oberto Cancelliere is constrained to admit that aT 

tak nl Gen H. Sem T man y ^"eys, the y did not succeed in 
taking a single Rsan ship*. Neither had Pisa put forth all her 
strength. After half ruining the commerce of her rival and twLe 
defeating her ,n open battle, she turned to rid her seas of 
Saracen corsairs and rendered powerful assistance to the Arch- 
chancellor Rainald in the war which he was waging against 
Pope Alexander. Pushing southward as far as Terracina her 

rSTl, fT u US l0SS6S ° n the Pa P al P artisans : ™l on 

the 9th of September, the Pisans stormed and took Civita- 
vecchia pro honore imperatoris 2 ." 

• F ! ndin g * e mselves no longer able to cope with their enem V 
single-handed the Genoese besought the help of Lucca, and 
Lucca was only too ready to give it. Not only did she long to 
possess a seaport where Viareggio now stands, but the ever- 
increasing circulation of Pisan money had added a new item to 
the long list of grievances which she treasured up against her 
hated neighbour. In June, n 55 , the Emperor had confirmed 
to the Lucchesi their ancient right of minting money, forbid- 
ding the imitation of their coinage under the severest penalties 3 ■ 
but in the following month, he seriously diminished the value 
of that concession by renewing the privilege granted by Conrad 
to the Pisans of coining money which should be current through- 
out Italy. Inasmuch as the Pisans were accustomed to copy the 
coinage of Lucca, the diploma of Frederick practically sanc- 
^ Marangone, ubi cit. p. 45 ; Oberti Cancellarii Annates Ianuenses, pp. I0I _ 

2 Marangone ubi cit. pp. 4S> 4 6; Manfroni, op. cit. p. 2 ™ 
Tommasi, Sommario della Storia di Lucca, ubi cit. p. 31 



178 GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA [ch.xiv 

tioned that abuse, and ere long we find the money of Pisa com- 
peting with that of Lucca, not only in Florence but also in 
Umbria and the March 1 . Fresh fuel was thus added to the 
smouldering fires of ancient enmity, and at least twice since the 
truce of 1 158, the Pisans and Lucchesi had met with arms in 
their hands: once at the Diet of S. Genesio, in 11 60, and once 
in the summer of 11 65, when the Pisans had driven the Luc- 
chesi in headlong rout from the Bagni di Monte Pisano even 
unto Massa 2 . What wonder if the proposals of Genoa were 
eagerly welcomed? By the treaty of October 7th, 1166, the 
Genoese promised to pay an annual subsidy and to build the 
tower of Motrone on the sea-shore, some two miles to the 
south of Pietrasanta. In return the Lucchesi were to wage 
war on the Pisans by land, while the Genoese assailed them 
by sea 3 . 

An alliance between cities belonging to different provinces 
and differing widely in the habits and characteristics of their 
inhabitants was, in those days, unusual. Even in the thirteenth 
and fourteenth centuries, when intercourse between the Com- 
munes had increased enormously, the alliances entered into 
were generally between Communes belonging to the same 
region. Occasionally, no doubt wider leagues were formed, but 
only when some powerful enemy menaced all alike : the Com- 
panies of Adventure, for example, or the Dukes of Milan. As 
a rule, the geographical factor was the determining one. Lucca 
and Genoa, on the contrary, were not only distant from one 
another, but there was no natural bond of union between them ; 
they had simply banded together to crush Pisa. The other 
Tuscan cities seem to have looked on with disapproval; and 
when, in 11 68, the Lucchesi consigned to the Genoese the 

1 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 160, 161, and authorities there cited. Compare also 
Ptolemaei Lucensis Annates, ad ann. 1155 and 1158, pp. 53 and 54 of the 
Florentine edition. 

2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 40. The Massa here spoken of is, of course, Massa 
Pisana. 

3 Oberti Cancellarii Annates, p. 193 ; Marangone, ubi cit. p. 46; Tommasi, 
Sommario della Storia di Lucca, ubi cit. p. 38. The text of the treaty has been 
published by Cordero, Atti intorno al commercio dei Lucchesi coi Genovesi, 
in Atti della R. Accad. Lucchese, Tom. x, p. 86. 



n66] GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA IJ9 

Pisan prisoners whom they had captured at A*™™ ■ a- 
tion was universal "llnZ t Caprurec * at ^ciano, indigna- 
Tiiorf-m k k Lucenses malam famam per totam 

h y m s ,vesfl p "r a f r ures of , the count ^ Were ™*5 

memselves felt. People hvmg on different sides of a mountain 

generations their languages were mutually unintelligible and 
by intermarriage or contact with differeni ^environments thdr 
physical features began to differ' " F™ , t on ™ ems toeir 

centnr,, ■, t ; • ' * or a Tuscan of the twelfth 

century a Ligunan was every whit as much a foreigner as was 
^Frenchman or a Spaniard, and he was a great "deal beZ 

The alliance between Lucca and Genoa not only increased 

t zzsssxzsrt t it b r h=d 

ca^rv thdrr T^ ted - t0 aCqUirC a P° rt at MoS'and to 

^T^^s^^r^ that monopoiy 

1-^1 * , ^ nunngea. in tnese circumstances <*hf> U<± 
u°il V g T F ~f °V he ^r" Wh ° m She had -"d's fait 

righte whkh he r h C a d f ^ Jr ail6d UP ° n t0 insist th " the 
Z,,l/h , conferred by the diploma of April, n6c 

should be respected, and that the Genoese should cease from 

trL^ZioZt &'£££>£*: *£ *. '» * would appear 

/»/eroo : Jm0Wn Imes m the thirty-third canto of the 

Ahi Genovesi, uomini diversi 

D ogni costume, e pien d' ogni magagna 
Perche non siete voi del mondo speSiT' 



12 2 



180 GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA [ch.xiv 

troubling Sardinia, Pisa's hands would be freed to deal with the 
new danger. 

In October, 1166, Frederick returned to Italy. A Diet was 
held at Lodi in November ; and either there or at Pavia, where 
he celebrated the Christmas festival, Pisan envoys appeared 
before the Imperial Curia and demanded that the Genoese 
should be forbidden to intermeddle in Sardinia. They were 
naturally supported by the Archbishop of Mayence, for it was 
to him that they had paid the price of investiture, and at first 
the Emperor seemed disposed to grant their petition as a matter 
of course. Rising to his feet, he charged the Genoese upon 
their fealty to desist from molesting the Pisans. Hardly, how- 
ever, had he finished speaking when Oberto Spinola bluntly 
declared that, if any such injunctions were laid upon his fellow- 
citizens they would not obey them. The investiture made to the 
Pisans was, he asserted, null and void. Sardinia belonged to 
the Genoese by right of conquest ; as conquerors they held it in 
the name of the Emperor, and as conquerors they intended to 
hold it. If the Pisans, relying on the words just spoken by 
Frederick — "pro hac, non sententia, sed voce tantum impera- 
toris" — dared to set foot in the island, the Genoese would cut 
off their noses and gouge out their eyes 1 . The legend of Mogahid 
was once more put forward as serious history; while, in proof 
of the continued overlordship of Genoa, it was alleged that the 
merchants of Gaeta and Naples, when they visited Sardinia, 
were wont to offer, to such of the Genoese as they found there, 
"a shield full of loaves, two glass jars, called miuolia, full of 
pepper, and two barrels of wine, loci potestate non prohibente, 
sub cuius fidutia insule Sardinee applicuisse videntur." At 
Easter, even the Judge of Cagliari himself presented a huge 
cheese, so heavy that it took a yoke of oxen to draw it; and 
Cagliari, when the Genoese first conquered it, "erat caput 
tocius Sardinie 2 ." 

The Pisans apparently made no attempt to refute these argu- 

1 "Nos illorum nasos et oculos de capitibus eiciemus, si in eadem insula 
invenerimus illos." 

2 Compare Besta, op. cit. I, 135, and Atti della Soc. ligure st. pat. xviii, 
p. 210, there cited. 



1 1 66] GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA 181 

ments. Sardinia was theirs by Imperial concession, and con- 
fident in their own loyalty, they were content to look to their 
suzerain to perform the duty he owed them. " Lord Emperor,' * 
they cried, "you see how the Genoese despise your sentence 
and your words. Do then that which you deem to be to the 
honour of your Curia. Never will you find vassals more faithful 
than we; and we maintain that the Genoese would not have 
united to come thus meekly to your feet save only for fear and 
by reason of the might of the Pisans. That this is so you ought 
to believe by manifest proof; for twice in this year have we van- 
quished them and had justice upon them, with seven galleys 
against seven." A great uproar followed and the Court was 
adjourned till the next day. 

The feudal contract was a reciprocal one ; the same faith and 
loyalty which the vassal owed to his seignior was owed by the 
seignior to his vassal, whom he was bound so to guard and de- 
fend that none should do him wrong. As the head of the feudal 
hierarchy, Frederick had no superior over him to whom an in- 
jured feudatory might cry for justice, and his duty was clear. 
By every motive of righteousness and honour he was held to 
protect the Pisans in the possession of Sardinia. On the other 
hand, care for his own interests seemed to demand that he 
should win over the Genoese. He was probably aware that 
there had recently been pourparlers between them and the 
brother of the Queen Regent of Sicily, Sancho VI of Navarre, 
and that, lured by the promise of magnificent commercial con- 
cessions, they were meditating an alliance with the Normans 1 . 
Such a disaster must be averted at any cost, and the same 
specious plea of necessity which led a later Kaiser to decree the 
devastation of Belgium, led Frederick to betray the staunchest 
of his vassals. The loyalty of Pisa had been tried and tested, and 
would doubtless bear the strain of Imperial injustice. Genoa 
was disloyal and must therefore be conciliated. 

The next morning, without hearing any further arguments, 
the Emperor peremptorily ordered the Pisans to release all their 
Genoese prisoners. They replied that they had taken them as 

1 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 240. 



182 GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA [ch.xiv 

enemies in open fight and were bound by no law to let them go ; 
but Frederick was inexorable, and the Court gave judgment 
"ut omnes capti, honore imperii, liberarentur." The Pisans 
loudly protested against the injustice of the sentence; high 
words followed, and Uguccione Bononi gave the lie direct to 
one of the Genoese envoys and challenged him to ordeal by 
battle. The challenge was promptly accepted, and two Pisans 
and two Genoese were sworn upon the Gospels facere helium at 
the commandment of the Emperor. It does not seem, however, 
that the champions ever met. The Genoese were doubtless will- 
ing enough to fight, but the result of such an arbitrament must 
at the best be doubtful ; they preferred to gain by cunning what 
they could not be certain of winning by force. "Lord Em- 
peror," said Oberto Spinola, "you know that both we and the 
Pisans must be with the army in your service. We have sworn 
to them that, neither while we shall be there, nor for a month 
after our return, will we offend either their possessions or their 
persons, and that, when that time is over, we will make no com- 
plaint to any one touching any injury which they may there- 
after do us. If they will make the same oath in your presence, 
we will give you a thousand silver marks." Even had the oaths 
of the Genoese been likely to bind them, the Pisans, by accept- 
ing such conditions, would have despoiled themselves of all the 
advantages gained in two years of successful warfare. They, 
therefore, held their peace; and, says the annalist, "when they 
answered not, the Lombards shouted with one voice: Mortui 
sunt Pisani 1 . In the morning it was resolved in the Curia that 
the Archbishop Rainald should go to Genoa and the Archbishop 
of Mayence to Pisa. And upon the third day it was decreed 
that all the prisoners should be released. Nevertheless the said 
Archchancellor Rainald obeyed not the word of the Emperor 
but went to Pisa. Whether he was corrupted by prayer or 
money I know not 1 ." Meanwhile, Frederick favoured the 
Genoese in their cause against William of Montferrat and the 
Marquis of Gavi 2 , and did everything in his power to win their 

1 Oberti Cancellarii Annates Ianuenses, pp. 194-200. 

2 Oberti Cancellarii Annates cited, pp. 193, 194; Manfroni, op. cit. p. 241. 



1 167] GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA 183 

friendship; but all his pains were wasted because the Pisans 
obstinately refused to let the prisoners go. Hostilities were re- 
sumed in March, 1167. 

In the same month, as we have already seen 1 , Rainald once 
more appeared in Pisa, and the Consuls swore to join the 
"happy army" which was gathering for the invasion of the 
Kingdom of Sicily. The scurvy treatment which they had re- 
ceived at the hands of their suzerain had not diminished their 
loyalty, and it was probably due to the whole-hearted assistance 
they gave him that they were unable to repeat their victories 
of the preceding year. The magnus stolus which they equipped 
for the Imperial expedition, and the ten galleys which had gone 
to the siege of Alexandria under the Consul Burgense 2 must 
have left but few ships available for any other purpose, and, in 
1 1 67, Fortune seems upon the whole to have favoured the 
Genoese. They sent four galleys under the command of the 
Consul Rodoano 3 to blockade the mouths of the Rhone, and in 
May the king of Aragon entered into a treaty with them 
whereby the Pisans were excluded from all the ports of his 
kingdom 4 . There was, however, no important naval engagement, 
and in July the Pisans made overtures " ad pacem inveniendam 
et componendam." Five representatives from each city were 
appointed to discuss terms ; but the negotiations came to nothing 5 . 
The Pisans, probably, never intended that they should come to 
anything. What they wanted was a truce during which they 
might fulfil their promises to Frederick. 

On the nth of January the Emperor left Lodi and took the 
way of the Via Emilia towards the Romagna, intending first 
to conquer Ancona, and then to advance on Rome through 
central Italy. Ancona had acknowledged the authority of 
Manuel Comnenus and had received a Greek garrison, and it 
could not safely be left untaken in the rear of the Imperial 
army. As to the cities of the Veronese Mark, Frederick no 

1 P. 165 supra. 2 P. 113 supra. 

3 " In quibus [galeis] Rodoanus consul fuit a sociis dominus preelectus." 

4 Oberti Cancellarii Annates cited, p. 205. Compare Manfroni, op. cit. 
p. 241, citing the Liber jurium, vol. I, col. 227. Treaty of May, 1167. 

5 Oberti Cancellarii Annates, p. 202. 



1 84 GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA [ch.xiv 

doubt calculated that he could deal with them at his leisure 
after he had subdued Alexander and William II of Sicily. Even 
when the Congresses of Bergamo, Cremona and Pontida (Febru- 
ary-April, 1 1 67) had given birth to the Lombard League, he 
still believed that the surest way of taming the insurgent cities 
was to crush the Pope and the Normans. Deprived of those 
allies, the Lombards would lie at his mercy 1 . Ancona, how- 
ever, offered an unexpectedly vigorous defence. There were 
Pisan knights in the Imperial army 2 ; but fear of the Genoese 
delayed the arrival of Pisan galleys, and the sea remained open 3 . 
A constant stream of reinforcements, munitions and provisions 
was poured into the city by the Greeks. Frederick reluctantly 
reached the conclusion that valuable time was being wasted, 
and learning that Rainald of Cologne and Christian of Mayence 
had fought a battle with the Romans, and that the army of 
William of Sicily was advancing to the help of Alexander, he 
raised the siege and hastened towards Rome (July, 1167). The 
Leonine city was soon occupied, and, after an obstinate resist- 
ance which piled the pavement with corpses and stained the 
walls and altars with blood, St Peter's itself fell into the hands 
of the Germans. There, on the following Sunday, the Antipope 
Paschal celebrated high mass, and there Frederick was once 
more solemnly crowned. Alexander and his partisans were be- 
sieged in the Colosseum and in the houses of the Frangipani 4 . 
In May eight Pisan galleys had co-operated with Rainald in 
the taking of Civitavecchia 5 , and now eight more galleys, under 
the command of the Consuls Teperto Duodi and Bulgarino 
Anfossi, ascended the Tiber, devastating the churches and villas 
on either bank. Their presence doubtless contributed to the 
submission of the Romans. Marangone would have us believe 
that they were the actual cause of it. "When," says he, "one 
of the Pisan galleys, with the Consuls and sapientes on board 

1 See Butler, The Lombard Communes, op. cit. pp. 129 et seq. 

2 "Et convocatis Pisanis qui secum militibus iverant." Oberti Cancellarii 
Annates, p. 203. 

3 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 242. 

4 Muratori, Annali d" Italia, ad ann. 

5 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 48. 



1 167] GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA 185 

and with many banners displayed, came ad romeam ripam prope 
pontem 1 and anchored there, the Romans, for the great fear 
that they had, cast themselves at the feet of the Emperor and 
swore to do his commandment 2 ." 

It seemed as though the ignis fatuns of Sicilian conquest 
which had so long danced before the eyes of Frederick was at 
last within his reach; but the Pisans, who had prepared "a 
great fleet of fifty galleys and thirty-five saettie and many other 
ships," bluntly told him that, if he permitted the Genoese to 
take part in the expedition, they would have nothing whatever 
to do with it. The Genoese, on the other hand, once more raised 
the question of the prisoners and made their release a condition 
precedent to any assistance from them. In these circumstances, 
Frederick did not hesitate to throw over the Genoese, who had, 
it would seem, as yet made no preparations of ships or men 3 . 
But he had already delayed too long. His army was annihilated 
by a terrible pestilence 4 , which appeared to that age the direct 
vengeance of heaven for the attack on the Holy City and the 
lawful Pope 5 . Among the victims was the Archchancellor 
Rainald. Nothing was left but precipitate retreat, and, on the 
6th of August, the Emperor struck his tents and hurried north- 
ward. In September he was in the neighbourhood of Lucca, 
and seems to have visited both Lucca and Pisa 6 . The Pisans, no 
doubt, received him with all due deference ; we are told that the 
keys of the city were offered to him by the magistrates in a 
silver basin, while all the people shouted "Empire! Empire!"; 

1 "Ripa Romea" is identified by Gregorovius (op. cit. vol. II, lib. viii, 
c - v » P- 57°> note 80) with the "Ripa Grande" of later times. 

2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 49. 

3 Oberti Cancellarii Annates Ianuenses, pp. 203, 204. 

4 According to Dr Raymond Crawford (Plague and Pestilence in Literature 
and Art, Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1914, p. 104) the pestilence which 
destroyed the army of Barbarossa "seems to have been bubonic plague." 
See, however, Gregorovius, op. cit. vol. II, lib. viii, c. v, p. 565. 

5 Compare Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 354, where the " deforme tempus " which 
followed is attributed to the wrath of God. The imperialist Marangone (ubi 
cit. p. 50) makes no such assumption, but simply records the facts. It is, 
perhaps, not without interest to note that, in January, the Arno was frozen 
over "et certamina magna libere fecerunt." Compare my Palio and Ponte, 
p. 104. 

6 "Et Pisanam civitatem et Lucam visitavit." 



186 GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA [ch.xiv 

but the shattered remnant of the great army, no longer strong 
enough to face even the Lombard League, must have created 
a painful impression. The splendid dream of a virtual co- 
partnership with the Empire in a conquered Sicily was perforce 
abandoned, and no sooner had Frederick gone northward by 
the Via Francigena than the Consul Bulgarino Anfossi and two 
sapientes were sent to treat for peace with King William. He, 
however, was not minded to pay too dearly for Pisan neutrality, 
and the negotiations were speedily broken off 1 . During the 
ensuing winter, Frederick was reduced to such extremities that 
he even thought of recognizing Alexander as Pope, and when, 
in March, 1168, he fled from Italy with a mere handful of 
followers, Lucca and Genoa, rejoicing as at a victory won by 
their own prowess, set about the work of crushing Pisa. More- 
over, the catastrophe which had overtaken the Emperor in- 
juriously affected the internal conditions of Pisa itself. The 
question of the Archbishop once more agitated men's minds, 
and it soon became manifest that popular sympathy for Villano 
was as active as ever. Then too, the disaffection of the Visconti 
seems to have become a serious danger. They had not forgotten 
their defeat at the hands of the Commune, and were eager to 
take revenge upon their despoilers. The betrayal of Agnano to 
the Lucchesi in the following year was certainly an act of re- 
taliation 2 . 

The war opened in Provencal waters, and on the 24th of 
April, just before daybreak, four Pisan galleys, which had sepa- 
rated from the main fleet and put into Agde to obtain supplies, 
were surprised and captured by the Genoese, "hominibus in 
eis dormientibus et nichil sentientibus 3 ." After a long series of 
disasters, the Genoese had at last achieved a considerable naval 
success, and they were proportionately elated. The good news 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 49, 50. 

2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 54: "Anno Domini mclxviiii, Indictione II. 
Tancredus Vicecomes castrum de Agnano pecunia a Lucensibus sibi con- 
venta, scelleratissime Lucensibus ipso die Kal. Martii tradidit, et eos intro- 
misit." Compare Volpe, op. cit. p. 201. 

3 Oberti Cancellarii Annates lanuenses, pp. 207, 208; Marangone, ubi cit. 
PP. 5i,52. 



1 1 68] GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA 187 

was forthwith sent to Lucca, and the Lucchesi determined to 
strike at once. On the 13th of May they attacked and burned 
Quosa, and thence, on the 16th, "bene parati militum, peditum 
et sagittariorum," they advanced to Asciano. The garrison, 
though a mere handful and taken unawares, boldly sallied forth 
and put the enemy to flight, slaying many of them and taking a 
few prisoners. Unfortunately, however, they continued their 
pursuit too far, and the Lucchesi, perceiving how few they 
were, took heart of grace and turned upon them. Overwhelmed 
by superior numbers, the Pisans were hopelessly routed. 
Twenty knights of noble birth and thirty-nine foot-soldiers 
were led captive to Lucca 1 . During the last three years, hun- 
dreds of Genoese had died of starvation and misery in the dun- 
geons of Pisa, but hundreds still survived; and no sooner did 
tidings of the victory of Asciano reach Genoa than it was re- 
solved to make every effort to get possession of the Pisan 
prisoners, and especially of the noblest of the knights. With 
that precious pledge in their hands, the Genoese might reason- 
ably hope to obtain the release of their fellow-citizens. Am- 
bassadors were accordingly sent to Lucca, and after some delay, 
twelve of the chief est and bravest (de maioribus et fortioribus) of 
the Pisan knights were delivered to them at Viareggio 2 . The 
prisoners passed the night " in fundo turris, ubi erat aqua fetens 
et vermes," and in the morning they were put on board a galley 
which had come from Porto Venere to convey them to Genoa. 
The tables were now completely turned. Not only was the 
actual number of the Pisans in Genoa greater than that of the 
Genoese in Pisa — the taking of the four galleys at Agde had 
more than redressed the balance 3 — but the individual import- 
ance of the captives was all in favour of the Genoese. As a 
result the Pisans agreed to an exchange of prisoners 4 . Mean- 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 52; Ptolemaei Lucensis Annates, ubi tit. p. 57. 
See also Tommasi, Sommario della Storia di Lucca, ubi cit. lib. 1, cap. IV, 

PP- 38,39- 

2 "Quos Lucenses cum multis militibus usque ad turrim de mare dux- 
erunt." 

3 "Nam fuerunt Pisani numero .dcc. Ianuenses vero .cccxxxiii." 

4 Oberti Cancellarii Annates Ianuenses, p. 209. 



188 GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA [ch.xiv 

while, the Genoese attacked the island of Pianosa and destroyed 
a great part of the fortifications which had been constructed 
there; they sent eight galleys to intercept seven Pisan galleys 
which were convoying the Imperial Chancellor to Frejus, and 
chased them across the Ligurian Sea 1 ; in August, they cap- 
tured a Pisan galley off Savona 2 . 

Through the good offices of Archbishop Villano who betook 
himself to Genoa, and " in the Church of S. Lorenzo the Martyr 
preached humbly and wisely of peace," negotiations were once 
more entered into, and the envoys of Pisa, Lucca and Genoa 
met at Porto Venere. Not only Villano but the Archbishop of 
Genoa and the Bishop of Lucca took part in their discussions, 
and at one time it seemed that peace was assured. An inden- 
ture 3 , containing the terms agreed upon by the representatives 
of the three Communes was actually drawn up, when, at the 
last moment, the Pisans refused to sanction its execution 4 . 
Nevertheless, if Villano 's intervention failed of its immediate 
object, it resulted in his own reinstatement. All the sentences 
which had been pronounced against him during his banishment 
were annulled by the Consuls ; his possessions were restored to 
him, and Benincasa, or, as Pope Alexander called him, Malin- 
casa, was expelled from the Archbishopric. It seems that the 
Canons, who had been among the bitterest enemies of Villano, 
warmly advocated his restoration 5 . 

By large pecuniary sacrifices and larger promises, Pisa suc- 
ceeded in persuading the cattani of Versilia and the Garfagnana 
to break with Lucca 6 ; and when the war was resumed, it was 
waged by land and by sea, in the Pisan mountains and about the 
fortresses of Corvaja and Flaminga; in Provence, in Sardinia 
and along the coasts of Elba. In those years the Pisans put forth 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 53 ; Oberti Cancellarii Annates, pp. 209, 210. The 
former calls the Imperial Chancellor "Philippus," namely Philip, the suc- 
cessor of Rainald in the Archbishopric of Cologne; the latter " Cancellarius 
Frederici imperatoris, nomine Christianus." 

2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 52. 

3 "Verba... in scripto redacta et per abecedarium divisa." 

4 Oberti Cancellarii Annates, pp. 210-212. 

5 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 201, 202. 

6 Bonaini, Diplomi pisani, xviii a*, pp. 47-50 (October, 1169). 



1 1 70] GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA 189 

all their strength and gave marvellous proof of their tenacity of 
purpose and of the greatness of their military and economic re- 
sources, thus reaping the reward of a policy relatively straight- 
forward and consistent, and especially so with regard to the 
Empire. The flower of Tuscan feudality flocked to their stan- 
dards, and with the aid of the Count Ildebrandino of Soana, of 
the nobilis militia of the Bishop of Volterra, of the Count Alberto 
of Prato and of many other Counts of the house of Gherardesca, 
they were able, in this their hour of need, to put into the field 
a larger army than had ever yet been seen in Tuscany 1 . Their 
principal object was to take and destroy the fortress of Motrone 
and the towers which the Lucchesi and Genoese had constructed 
on the sea-coast from the mouth of the Serchio northward of 
Viareggio. Motrone dominated the Via Francigena and formed 
the only certain means of contact between Genoa and Lucca, 
giving practical value and liberty of initiative to an alliance 
which was otherwise subject to the arbitrary caprices of the 
feudatories of the Garfagnana 2 . Around Motrone, in the 
autumn of 1170, were concentrated the forces of Pisa, Lucca 
and Genoa. Even for those who were extraneous to the quarrel, 
the victory of the one side or the other must necessarily entail 
important consequences, and, at the last moment, the Floren- 
tines sent ambassadors — consules et aliae religiosae personae — 
with the professed object of inducing the belligerents to lay 
down their arms. For four days they negotiated "de pace et 
concordia facienda"; but it would be doing injustice to the 
subtle Florentine intellect to suppose that either the ambassadors 
or those who sent them can have had much hope that mere 
words could effect anything when the hostile armies were al- 
ready drawn up in battle array and only awaited the signal for 
onset. Their real object doubtless was to watch the course of 
events at close quarters, and, perhaps, if opportunity served, to 
sell their aid to the highest bidder. 

The battle joined on Thursday, the 27th of November, and 
"by the power of God who exalteth the humble and casteth 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 57, 58. 

2 Volpe, op. cit. p. 203, and see p. 179 supra. 



i 9 o GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA [ch.xiv 

down the proud, the Pisans got a glorious victory on the Luc- 
chesi and the Genoese, pursuing them even unto the wooden 
tower which standeth upon the road which is called Regia 1 . 
More than three hundred knights and more than seven hundred 
foot-soldiers were taken prisoners together with three Consuls. 
And verily many more of the Lucchesi would have been taken 
had they not proclaimed themselves Pisans with loud voices 
during the battle. Many were wounded and many slain; many 
perished in the marshes; they lost well-nigh a thousand war- 
horses and over a thousand palfreys and mules. An innumerable 
multitude of asses was captured by Pisan citizens." In those 
days the meadows of Arsula must have been overstocked 2 . 
" Banners, shields, corselets, and all manner of weapons, tents, 
pavilions, fortifications (castra) and all the spoils of the Lucchesi 
fell into the hands of the victorious Pisans. Neither is it doubtful 
that that would have been the last day of the city of Lucca if 
the Pisans had stayed betimes from following after the fugitives. 
On the same day whereon the battle was fought, the Genoese, 
who were there with a galley, beholding the victory which the 
Pisans had, were sore grieved and gat them thence. On the 
next day, the Pisans took the aforesaid tower of wood, and from 
the forests and marshes they drew forth the bodies of the Luc- 
chesi who had been slain, together with their arms and with 
much spoil. On the third day, the which was the 29th day of 
November, they went to the fortress of Motrone with mangonels 
and battering-rams and wooden castles 3 and catapults ; and they 
compassed it round about. Four days did they assail it with the 
machines aforesaid and with others. Now, that fortress was 
builded upon the sea-shore, and a moat had been digged about 
it, and it stood four-square with a passing strong tower at each 

1 This Via Regia must not be confused with the Via Francigena. See 
p. 192 infra. 

2 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, I, 14: "Prata de Arsula, quae fuerunt equorum 
pisanorum pascua." Compare Repetti, Dizionario cited, 1, 148. 

3 These wooden castles had, it would seem, been previously employed in 
the battle: "In prima acie fuerunt pedites omnes et sagittarii et milites 
octingenti, et sex castella lignea fortissima, quorum unumquodque quatuor 
curribus deferebatur; in qua acie comes Ildebrandinus miles signifer et 
capitaneus extitit " 



1 170] GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA 191 

of the corners thereof. In the midst was a great tower, sixty 
cubits high, wherein were eighty men of war with twenty arba- 
lists. But, when it had been long time besieged, they perceived 
that they might not hold it further, because the wall had been 
breached by the battering-rams and the tower by the mangonels. 
Wherefore, on the 2nd day of December, they surrendered 
themselves to the Pisans, and in the space of three days that 
fortress was destroyed even to its foundations and levelled with 
the ground. After the fight was ended, the Genoese came 
thither with five galleys, and seeing the ruins of it, departed 
with their grief redoubled. Then the Pisans returned to the 
aforesaid wooden tower and burned it with fire. Never, in good 
sooth, for a hundred years or more, hath any man seen or heard 
of so fair and ordered a battle or so great a victory as this which 
the Pisans gat upon the Lucchesi and Genoese. Thereafter, on 
the 4th day of December, they returned in triumph to Pisa 
with praise and glory, singing with jubilant voices : ' Not unto 
us, O Lord, not unto us the glory, but unto Thy Name for ever 
and ever. Amen 1 .' " 

The Lucchesi were once more cut off from the sea ; but the 
possession of the strong castle of Corvaja, which they had cap- 
tured in the previous year 2 , enabled them to keep open their 
communications with Genoa. Corvaja was, in those days, a 
place of considerable importance, for it not only defended the 
narrow gorge of the Versilia but also commanded the Via 
Francigena 3 , and the Pisans fully realized that, if they could 
retake it, much would have been done to secure the isolation of 
the Lucchesi. They accordingly sat down before it, and had the 
cattani of Versilia and the Garfagnana remained faithful to their 
obligations, all would have been well. Unfortunately, however, 
the cattani had very little more love for Pisa than they had for 
Lucca ; their policy was to preserve their own independence by 
playing the one Commune against the other, and no sooner did 
the Lucchesi and Genoese offer them a sufficient bribe than 



1 Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 58, 59. 

2 Ptolemaei Lucensis Annates, p. 56. 

3 Repetti, Dizionario cited, 1, 825. 



192 GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA [ch.xiv 

"that same avarice which took captive Judas took captive those 
wicked traitors of Versilia and Vallechia 1 ." Their defection was 
a serious blow to Pisa, and the spring of 1 171 found the enemy 
relatively but little weaker than they had been before their de- 
feat in the preceding November. 

The first care of the Lucchesi was to regain free access to the 
sea-coast. To this end they purchased large tracts of land from 
private individuals between Montramito and the mouth of the 
Serchio 2 ; and in May, with the help of the Genoese, they began 
to build a new tower " in litore maris ad Viam dictam Regiam 3 ." 
According to Oberto Cancelliere, the name Via regia was given 
to a causeway (iactus petrarum) which extended for two miles 
across the marshes to the sea-shore; and he tells us that the 
"turris de Via Regia" was built at the end of this causeway 
(in capite iactus), or in other words where the city of Viareggio 
now stands. It seems to have been made of wood 4 , but was sur- 
rounded by lofty walls and defended by a barbican ; and it could, 
we are told, be clearly seen from the mouth of the Arno 5 . Like 
the earliest castles of Normandy and England 6 , it no doubt 
stood upon an artificial mound thrown up from a deep moat at 
its base, and was approached by a great drawbridge leading 
from the further side of the moat to the second storey. In such 
structures the ground floor had no entrance from without and 
was used either for stores or for the custody of prisoners. In 
the case of the Tower of Viareggio, since the site was marshy 
and the fundus turris all awash with water, it was probably used 
exclusively for the latter 7 . Finally, the landward side of the 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 59. 

2 Ptolemaei Lucensis Annates, p. 57: "Eodem anno Lucense commune 
invenitur emisse a Truffa Mezolombardi boscum et totam terram super qua 
est aedificata turris quae est in faucibus Sercli, et a faucibus maris usque 
Milliarinum et a mari usque ad Mentraventum." 

3 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 60. 4 Ibid. p. 66. 

5 Oberti Cancellarii Annates Ianuenses, p. 245. Compare Tommasi, Som- 
mario delta Storia di Lucca, ubi cit. pp. 42, 43. 

6 C. H. Haskins, The Normans in European History (Constable, 1916), 
p. 151. Wooden fortresses of this type are well known from contemporary 
description, and are clearly discernible in the Bayeux Tapestry, which gives 
rude pictures of the strongholds of Dol, Rennes, Dinan and Bayeux. 

7 See p. 190 supra. 



ii7i] GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA 193 

causeway was commanded by the castle of Montramito ("mons 
Gravantus" " Montraventus"), the seat of the "filii Ubaldi," 
cattani in alliance with Lucca 1 . 

Enormous efforts were made to collect a sufficient force to 
overwhelm Pisa and to finish the war. "The Genoese," says 
Marangone, "sought help from Barcelona even unto Lom- 
bardy ,, ; they promised to send four thousand knights to the 
aid of Lucca, and "threatened with vain words to lay waste all 
the Pisan coasts 2 ." Overtures were made to the Tuscan cities, 
and Tolomeo of Lucca records the terms of a treaty entered 
into with the Pistoiesi whereby they undertook to provide a 
hundred and fifty knights, and five hundred foot-soldiers and 
balistarii 3 . The Count Guido also and the Sienese showed 
themselves disposed to join the league against Pisa 4 . Even 
Florence hesitated 5 ; but her interests lay rather in an alliance 
with Pisa than in her destruction, and, when sufficiently ad- 
vantageous terms were offered her, she hastened to accept 
them. The treaty of the 4th of July, 1171 6 , marks a definite 
epoch in the history of the relations between the two Communes. 
In return for Florentine assistance, the Pisans promised to 
"save and guard" the men of the Florentine state on land and 
on sea ; to furnish a contingent of four hundred knights when- 
ever the Florentines should be engaged in war in any part of 
Tuscany, except against the Bishop of Volterra, the Count 
Ildebrandino of Soana and the Count Alberto of Prato ; not to 
make peace or truce with Lucca without the consent of the 
Florentine Consuls ; to transport the goods and persons of the 

1 Repetti, Dizionario cited, I, 604. 

2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 60. See also Volpe, op. cit. p. 204, and Liber 
iurium, 1, 256 and 258 (1 May, 1171) there cited. 

3 Ptolemaei Lucensis Annates, p. 57; Salvi, Delle Historie di Pistoia 
(Roma, mdclvi), T. I, P. 11, lib. 11, p. 97. 

4 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 60; Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 370. 
6 Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. pp. 88, 89. 

• Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 60, 61 ; Arnmirato, Istorie Fiorentine (Firenze, 
Batelli e Compagni, 1846), T. 1, lib. 1, p. 106. The document is published 
by Dal Borgo, Diplomipisani, pp. 307, 308, and by Santini, Documenti deW an- 
tica costituzione del comune di Firenze (Firenze, Vieusseux, 1895), P. 1, doc. 
iv, pp. 5, 6. See also G. Arias, / Trattati commerciali delta Rep. Fiorentina 
(Firenze, Le Monnier, 1901), vol. 1, pp. 18, 19. 

h. 13 



194 GENOA AND LUCCA AGAINST PISA [ch.xiv 

Florentines by sea on the same terms as the wares of the Pisans 
themselves were transported ; to grant special exemptions with 
regard to riparian dues within the territories of Pisa ; to provide 
a domus for the accommodation of Florentine merchants "in 
Forisporta" and two shops upon the bridge over the Arno 1 . 
The alliance was to last for forty years and it was duly recorded 
in the Breve consilium and Breve Populi, to the end that it might 
be guaranteed by oath by each succeeding magistracy on taking 
office 2 . 

The Pisans were well content with a bargain which delivered 
them from imminent peril, and Marangone tells us that " eodem 
anno terram et totum comitatum et mare cum vigore tenue- 
runt 3 ." Still contending for doubtful confines, and cramped 
within an iron ring of feudal fortresses, crowning every hill- 
top and commanding every outlet 4 , Florence, to whom no Em- 
peror had ever yet conceded any privilege 5 , must have seemed 
the last of Tuscan cities from which commercial rivalry was to 
be feared; the advantages granted to her in 1171 were but as 
crumbs from the rich man's table. Later on, however, the 
bonds with which the Pisans had bound themselves began to 
fret and hamper them, and they sought in vain to break them. 
Florence never retraced her first resolute step towards the sea, 
nor suffered the door which had been opened to her to close 
again. Though she had not lost a single man nor spent a single 
denaro, but had only awaited the propitious moment to inter- 
vene and grasp every kind of advantage, she and she alone was 
the victor in that war 6 . 

1 As to the history of the Ponte Vecchio, see my Palio and Ponte, op. cit. 
pp. 108-110. 

2 Compare my A History of Perugia, pp. 32, 33. 

3 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 61. 

4 Between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the number of feudal 
castles in the territory of Florence is said to have increased to 205 ; whereas, 
up to the year 900, the documents record one only. See R. Caggese, Un 
Comune libero alle porte di Firenze nel secolo XIII (Firenze, Seeber, 1905), 
p. 12. 

5 Santini, Studi, op. cit. p. 130. 

6 Volpe, op. cit. p. 206. 



CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH 

CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE 

Although the usual proviso: salva fidelitate impera- 
toris was duly inserted in the treaty with Florence, it was 
qualified by the addition of a clause which practically provided 
for the maintenance of the alliance even in the face of Imperial 
disapproval: ita tamen vt imperator non possit liberare 
nos a predictis sacramentis 1 . Neither did that alliance 
stand alone. Already, in 1169, the Pisans had made peace with 
William of Sicily 2 , and, in 11 68 or 1169, they had sent am- 
bassadors to Constantinople to treat with Manuel Comnenus. 
The negotiations were long and difficult, lasting, as Marangone 
tells us, for over three years 3 ; and only when they had agreed 
to annul every pact inconsistent with their loyalty to the Eastern 
Empire, with whomsoever entered into — coronato vel non coro- 
nato* — were the Pisans at last permitted to re-occupy the quarter 
from which they had been expelled some ten years earlier. 

This change in Pisan policy was eagerly seized upon by her 
enemies as affording an opportunity to discredit her with 
Barbarossa; and, in the late autumn or early winter of 1171, 
"rogatu et suasione et precibus Lucensium et Ianuensium 5 ," 
Christian of Mayence was appointed Imperial Legate of all 
Italy, and unexpectedly appeared in Lombardy. He traversed 
the territories of the revolted Communes with all possible speed, 
avoiding the more frequented roads, and, after fording the 
Tanaro near Alessandria, reached Genoa in safety 6 . The object 
of his mission was to re-establish the prestige of the Empire in 

1 Dal Borgo, Diplomi pisani, p. 308; Santini, Documenti, op. cit. p. 6. 

2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 56. 3 Ibid. p. 62. 

4 Miiller, op. cit., doc. xxxiv, p. 40 et seq. The oath of the Pisan ambassadors 
in 1 170 is reported on pp. 45 and 54. 
6 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 62. 
6 Oberti Cancellarii Annates lanuenses, pp. 245, 246. 

13—2 



196 CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE [ch. xv 

Tuscany and to restore order; but since he had brought with 
him no sufficient army with which to enforce obedience, he was 
compelled to trust to his own dexterity to guide the Imperial 
bark among the intricate and opposing currents of Italian politi- 
cal life. Like the rest of his fellow-countrymen, he was con- 
stitutionally incapable of understanding the psychology of the 
Communes, each of them a separate nation, dowered with a 
patriotism all the more intense, fierce, jealous, intolerant, be- 
cause of its diminutive size. Every attempt at political recon- 
struction was shattered on the rock of communal particularism. 
Instead of making peace between the warring cities, he found 
himself compelled to take sides and to join in the conflict, and 
thenceforward he had no settled policy but lived as best he 
could from hour to hour. For all his energy and zeal, he be- 
came little better than the sport of circumstance. 

He was warmly welcomed by the Genoese, who were loud 
in their professions of loyalty, declaring that, unlike the Pisans, 
they had scorned the gifts of Manuel Comnenus and had re- 
jected the overtures of the King of Sicily, lest the honour of the 
Empire should be thereby diminished 1 . Christian either was or 
pretended to be deceived by their protestations. Like the dog 
in the fable, he was ready to risk the loss of the solid meat of 
Pisan friendship while snapping at the Genoese shadow; and 
before he started for Tuscany, he had promised to use every 
means in his power, short of putting the Pisans under the ban 
of the Empire or making war upon them, to obtain the libera- 
tion of the Genoese and Lucchese prisoners 2 . From that mo- 
ment his hands were tied, and when he reached Lucca in Janu- 
ary, 1 172, he came rather as a partisan than as an arbiter. Only 
by renouncing his agreement with Genoa, and forfeiting the 
great sum of money which had been fixed as the price of his 
services, could he hope to regain freedom of initiative. Money 
was, however, the last thing he was likely to give up, and his 
belief in the sincerity of the Genoese may well have been 

1 As to the reasons which induced the Genoese to seek a rapprochement 
with the Emperor at this juncture, see Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 247, 248. 

2 Oberti Cancellarii Annates, pp. 247, 248. 



1 172] CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE 197 

strengthened by the fact that the Communes of the Lombard 
League immediately took steps to punish them for their ad- 
herence to the Empire. Export of wheat to Genoa was strictly 
prohibited, and for six months the city seems to have been on 
the verge of famine 1 . 

On the 3rd of February Christian appeared in Pisa, where, says 
Marangone, he was "magnificently received 2 . " At his bidding, 
the Consuls of Pisa, Florence, Genoa and Lucca assembled at 
Borgo S. Genesio, and there he announced the object of his 
mission, which was, he assured them, the pacification of Tus- 
cany. To that end he demanded that they should entrust the 
adjustment of their differences to him "sine omni conditione." 
As a preliminary, the prisoners were to be delivered into his 
hands. The Genoese and Lucchesi, of course, desired nothing 
better, but the Pisans refused on the ground that they had no 
authority to enter into an unconditional undertaking with regard 
to the prisoners, and must first lay the matter before their fellow- 
citizens. Twenty days were given them in which to make up 
their minds, and, in the following month, at a great Diet of all 
the Consuls and Feudatories of Central Italy, assembled at 
Siena, they flatly refused to accept the arbitrament of the Im- 
perial Legate. In vain Christian swore that he had not entered 
into a secret understanding with the Genoese and had received 
no money from them. The perjury was too gross to deceive the 
Pisans for a single moment, and, irritated at their incredulity 
and obstinacy, he yielded to the ever-increasing urgency of the 
Consuls of Genoa and Lucca, and, on the 6th of March, bound 
himself by oath to pronounce the Ban of the Empire against 
Pisa; to annul all Imperial privileges which had been granted 
to her in the past ; to cause the Count of Siena and the Count 
Macharius of S. Miniato to make war upon her and to close the 
roads to travellers going to or coming from the city. Finally, 
he undertook himself to lead an army to Porto Pisano and to 
devastate the contado. If the Pisans submitted, he proposed to 
divide Sardinia between them and the Genoese, and to leave 
Viareggio in the hands of the allies that it might constitute as 

1 Oberti Cancellarii Annales, p. 246. 2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 62. 



198 CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE [ch. xv 

it were a sentinel at the gates of Pisa 1 . The Pisans did not sub- 
mit; and desiring, as he himself expresses it, to show forth the 
"contumaciam et superbiam Pisanorum," on the one hand, and 
the "humilitatem atque justiciam" of Lucca and Genoa, on 
the other, Christian kept his oath. On the 28th of March, in 
the Campo of Siena, "in conspectu prefecti urbis Romanorum, 
et coram marchionibus anconitanis, Conrado marchione de 
Monteferrato, comite Guidone, comite Aldobrandino, et quam 
pluribus aliis comitibus, capitaneis, valvassoribus, consulibus 
civitatum Tuscie, Marchie et vallis Spolitane et superioris atque 
inferioris Romanie, et infinita populi multitudine," Pisa was 
placed under the Ban of the Empire. All the privileges granted 
by Frederick and his predecessors were annulled and specifically 
those concerning Sardinia and the sea-coast, fodrum in the city 
and its contado, and — a grateful sop to Lucca — Pisan money, 
which it was forbidden either to tender or to accept under 
heavy penalties. "Multo etiam his plura," so wrote the Im- 
perial Legate, in a characteristic letter to his Genoese allies, 
"multo etiam his plura addidimus in confusione eorum que 
vobis nequaquam promiseramus sicut ab amicis vestris Lucen- 
sibus luce clarius cognoscetis. ,, He admonished them to pre- 
pare fifty galleys, twenty of which were to be held in readiness 
at Genoa, and twenty at Porto Venere. The remaining ten were 
to proceed towards the Maremma, where the Prefect of Rome 
had undertaken to place at their disposal the harbour of Civita- 
vecchia and the ports of the Count Ildebrandino of Soana. 
Naturally, however, all this could not be accomplished without 
considerable expenditure of money. Christian complained that 
he was already deeply in debt — "multis tenemur debitis" — 
and exhorted the Genoese to fulfil their promises and to re- 
plenish his empty coffers 2 . 

In response to this appeal five hundred pounds were sent 
to him at Lucca; and a fleet of six galleys, to say nothing of 
corsairs from Rapallo, Sestri Levante and Porto Venere, had 

1 Volpe, op. cit. p. 208, citing Tola, Cod. dipl. Sardo, p. 242. Compare 
Besta, op. cit. 1, 145. 

2 Oberti Cancellarii Annates, pp. 251, 252. 






1 172] CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE 199 

already put out to sea 1 , when he suddenly held his hand and 
re-opened negotiations with Pisa. The Pisan chroniclers would 
have us believe that in so doing he was influenced by "the evil 
report of him which was noised abroad through all Italy 2 " ; but 
a more probable reason for his change of attitude is to be found 
in the fact that, in March, 11 72 — the very month in which he 
had placed Pisa under the Ban of the Empire — Barbarossa re- 
opened the question of the Sicilian expedition, at the Diet of 
Worms 3 . Philip of Cologne was writing to the Italian cities, 
and the Pisan Consuls were in direct communication with the 
Imperial Court 4 . 

On the 28th of May, at Borgo S. Genesio, "in generali parla- 
mento," the Pisans were absolved from the ban and reinstated 
in all their rights and privileges 5 . A thousand citizens from each 
of the four Communes, Pisa, Florence, Lucca and Genoa, swore 
to observe such terms of peace as should be agreed upon 6 , and 
on the same day Christian came to Pisa. There, on the 29th 
of May, he presided "in magno Pisanorum parlamento." The 
Consuls of Florence, Genoa and Lucca "cum eorum sapienti- 
bus" were also present, and it was agreed that two men should 
be appointed by each Commune "qui omnes discordias ter- 
minarent 7 ." "To the end that peace might be the better com- 
pleted and kept, the Pisans, at the command of the Imperial 
Legate, sent to Florence a hundred of the knights of Lucca 
which had been in prison in Pisa, and the Lucchesi sent to 

1 Oberti Cancellarii Annales, pp. 253, 254. 

2 " Considerante Archiepiscopo Magentino...malam famam quae per to- 
tam Italiam de se insonaverat, Pisanos...a banno absolvit." 

3 M. G. H. xvii, Annales colonienses maximi, arm. 1172, 26 March. 

4 M. G. H., loc. cit. p. 784. The Consuls to Philip of Cologne. 

5 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 63 ; Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 378. 

6 Ibid. p. 64; Oberti Cancellarii Annales, p. 254; Tommasi, Sommario 
della Storia di Lucca, ubi cit. p. 44; Volpe, op. cit. p. 210. 

7 In giving May as the month in which the Pisans were absolved from the 
Ban of the Empire and received to the grace of the Imperial Legate, I have 
followed Bonaini {Arch. Stor. It. T. vi, P. 1, p. 378 n.), and his opinion 
seems to be confirmed by a document published by Dal Borgo, Dipl. pisani, 
pp. 309-311. Other writers, on the contrary (e.g. Belgrano, Annali Genovesi, 
etc., op. cit. vol. 1, p. 253, note 1), tell us that these events took place in 
June. Compare Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad ann. 1173; Villari, I primi 
due secoli, etc., op. cit. 1, 125; Volpe, op. cit. p. 210. 



200 CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE [ch. xv 

Pistoia fifteen Pisan knights and forty foot-soldiers which had 
been in prison in Lucca." Thereafter, Christian ordered the 
Consuls of the said Communes to follow him to Borgo S. 
Genesio. Bad faith, however, was in every heart. On the ioth 
of June, while the terms of peace were being discussed, Christian 
secretly renewed his promises to Lucca and Genoa 1 , and then, 
on the 4th of August, seized the Consuls of Florence and Pisa 
and cast them into prison 2 . If we may credit the Genoese 
annalist, this step was taken " by reason of the treason which the 
Pisans and Florentines purposed to commit concerning the 
fortress of S. Miniato 3 "; and we know that a secret agreement 
had, in fact, been entered into with certain Samminiatesi who 
had been expelled from their native town as rebels of the Empire 
by the Count Macharius 4 . On the 5th of May, at Florence, in 
the palace of the Bishop, the exiles swore not only to make 
common cause with the Pisans and Florentines, but to deliver 
to them the fortress of S. Miniato, if they should succeed in 
recovering it, and that even if the donjon still remained in the 
hands of the Germans 5 . Several of the principal citizens of 
Florence were present, among them one of the Uberti, and it 
is impossible to suppose that the Pisans were kept in ignorance 
of the transaction. Indeed, according to Pisan sources, they were 
themselves the first to open negotiations with the Samminiatesi 6 , 
and it is obvious that the possession of S. Miniato would have 
been of enormous advantage to the allies. Not only did it 
dominate the Arno, the Via Francigena and the road to Porto 
Pisano, but, in the hands of Pisa and Florence, it would have 
enabled them to close the Val d' Elsa to the Lucchesi and to 



1 Belgrano, ubi cit. : " actum in pontili plebis de Pontefessii .mclxxii. in- 
dictione quarta, decimo die iunii." 

2 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 64. 

3 Oberti Cancellarii Annales, pp. 254. 255. 

4 Villari, I primi due secoli, etc., op. cit. pp. 125, 126. 

5 "Castrum autem intelligimus recuperatum etiam sine superiori in- 
castellatura." The agreement is published in its entirety in Santini, Docu- 
menti, Parte III, doc. 1, p. 363. 

6 Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, vi, Breviarium, 185 : "Pisani...procuraverunt 
interim quod homines et comune S. Miniatis cum Florentinis secum essent; 
et salva fidelitate Imperii iuraverunt, etc." 



1 172] CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE 201 

hinder the military co-operation of Siena, allied with the Im- 
perial Legate in this war. 

The capture of the Consuls broke up the Diet of Borgo 
S. Genesio, and, after sending the prisoners to Lucca, Christian 
prepared to take the field. The discovery of the conspiracy had 
freed his hands, and he no longer feared to incur the displeasure 
of his master by fulfilling his promises to Genoa and Lucca. 
He, however, took good care to be well paid for his services, 
and, before he would consent to put Florence as well as Pisa 
under the Ban of the Empire, he exacted a thousand pounds 
from the Genoese and fifteen hundred pounds from the Luc- 
chesi 1 . All Tuscany was under arms. On the one side were the 
Sienese, the Pistoiesi and the Lucchesi; on the other the Pisans 
and the Florentines. With the former was the Count Guido, 
with the latter were the Count Ildebrandino of Soana, the 
Alberti, and many of the lesser feudatories. In a war in which 
the Sienese were engaged the Aldobrandeschi could have no 
doubt where their interests lay, and although Ildebrandino had, 
as we have seen 2 , taken part in the Diet of Siena, he seems never 
to have broken with the Pisans 3 . 

With few, if any, troops of his own, and dependent, as he 
was, upon his allies, it was obvious that some little time must 
elapse before the Imperial Legate could assume the offensive, 
and the Pisans and Florentines hastened to take advantage of 
the delay. The former, anticipating an incursion of the Luc- 
chesi into the Val d' Era 4 , marched up the Arno and encamped 
above Pontedera, while the latter posted themselves at Castel 
Fiorentino to await the coming of the Sienese 5 . A few days 

1 Oberti Cancellarii Annates , p. 255. 

2 See p. 198 supra. The "comes Aldobrandinus " there mentioned is, of 
course, Ildebrandino of Soana. 

3 In July the Pisans had sent 140 knights to his assistance when "pro 
iniuria quam ei fecerat Bernardus Stratume de pecoribus Garfanensium suae 
fidantiae custodiaeque commissis, magnum exercitum pro eis recuperandis 
contra eum preparavit, et auxilia a Pisanis petiit." Marangone, ubi cit. p. 63. 

4 The diploma of April, 1162, and the subsequent subjection of the Val 
d' Era by the Pisans (pp. 130-132 supra) had not been effectual to destroy the 
aspirations either of the Commune or Bishop of Lucca with regard to that 
region. See Volpe, op. cit. p. 211. 

5 As to Castel Fiorentino see the article of M. Cioni, in the Misc. Storica 



202 CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE [ch. xv 

later Christian commenced operations. On the 16th of August 
he stormed and burned Ventrignano, a stronghold of the Counts 
Gherardesca, whose castles and lands extended almost to the 
gates of S. Miniato, and then, leaving the Pisans to be dealt 
with later, advanced with the Lucchesi along the Via Francigena 
to Castel Fiorentino where he hoped to effect a junction with 
the Sienese and to overwhelm the Florentines. No sooner did 
the Pisans hear of his departure than they sent two hundred 
and twenty-five knights to the aid of their allies, and then, on 
the 17th of August, invaded the territories of Lucca, devastating 
the country on either side of the Serchio from the Lunata to 
Ponte S. Pietro. The Lucchesi, "timentes de civitate," there- 
upon deserted the Imperial Legate and hurried homewards 1 . 
An attempt on Castel Fiorentino failed, and when Christian 
turned once more to attack the Pisans, the Sienese, who had 
fortified themselves in Colle di Val d' Elsa which they had taken 
from the Alberti 2 , had no mind to follow him, leaving an un- 
defeated Florentine army in their rear. Freed from any im- 
mediate apprehensions on their own account, the Florentines 
seem to have considerably relaxed their efforts 3 ; but their inter- 
vention had sufficed to prevent Christian from uniting his forces ; 
and, so long as the Pisans had only the Lucchesi and the Count 
Guido to deal with, they found no difficulty in holding their 
own. It does not seem that the Pistoiesi took any active part 
in the war. 

On the 19th a skirmish took place at Ponte Flesso, the 
modern Montuolo, in which the Lucchesi were worsted, and 
on the 28th an attempt was made by Count Guido and one of 
the Lucchese Consuls, at the head of two hundred knights, to 

delta Valdelsa, anno vi (1898), p. 159 et seq. At this time it was governed by 
the Bishop of Florence. 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 65. 

2 Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. p. 93. 

3 See Sanzanome, Gesta Florentinorum (edition cited), p. 131, where the 
failure of Christian before Castel Fiorentino is the last event which is re- 
corded of this war. On the other hand, some writers attribute the destruction 
of the fortress of Montegrossoli, held by the Firidolfi, adherents of Christian, 
to this year. See Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. p. 93, note 3, and compare Villari, 
I primi due secoli, etc., op. cit. 1, 131. 



1 172] CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE 203 

surprise Pontedera. After a bloody conflict, they were repulsed 
by the Upezzinghi and the men of Calcinaia and Vicopisano, 
who drove them in headlong rout as far as Montecalvoli. 
Marangone tells us that many of their war-horses were slain or 
wounded 1 . The struggle between the Communes was, as usual, 
complicated by the intervention of the nobles of the Garfagnana, 
always ready for new alliances and new defections. When the 
majority of the cattani had sold themselves to Lucca, in 1170 2 , 
a few had remained faithful to their obligations with Pisa 3 , and 
these now entered into negotiations with the "filii Ubaldi," 
who, after the manner of their kind, were willing once more to 
change sides in consideration of a sufficient bribe. Lords of 
Montramito, which commanded the causeway leading across 
the marshes to the tower of Viareggio, and of the castle and 
district of Bozzano, they agreed to betray them both; and, on 
the 17th of September, they kept their word. A strong force 
was sent from Pisa, Montramito and Bozzano were occupied 
and the tower itself was vigorously assailed. Unfortunately, 
however, the garrison was succoured by a Genoese galley and 
by "a great army of knights, footsoldiers and bowmen" which 
arrived with all speed from Lucca. A battle followed which 
lasted almost the whole day; the two fortresses fell into the 
hands of the Lucchesi and Montramito was burned to the 
ground 4 . The Genoese, meanwhile, seem to have done but 
little to assist their allies. In September they raided Pianosa 
with eight galleys, and, in the following month, they surprised 
and captured three Pisan galleys which were lying at anchor in 
Porto S. Lucia in Corsica 5 ; but there were no other naval 
operations worth recording. 

Finding that the Lucchesi alone could accomplish nothing 
against the Pisans, Christian resolved to create a diversion by 
attacking the Count Ildebrandino of Soana, and, in December, 
he invaded the Maremma at the head of an army composed of 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 65 ; Chron. Var. Pis. in Muratori, Rer. Ital. 
Script, vi, 187, 188. 

2 See p. 191 supra. 3 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 59. 

4 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 66; Ptolemaei Lucensis Annates, pp. 57, 58. 

5 Oberti Cancellarii Annales, pp. 254, 255 ; Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 66, 67. 



2o 4 CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE [ch. xv 

Sienese levies and retainers of the Count Guido. At first he 
met with some success — "duo castella cepit" — but the arrival 
of a hundred and fifty Pisan knights put a stop to his further 
progress. Afraid to risk a pitched battle, he retreated "in dis- 
trictu Urbis Romae," and abandoned his ill-starred attempt to 
impose "pacem et concordiam" on Tuscany 1 . His operations 
against Ancona, in the following year, were equally unfortunate. 
Though assisted by forty Venetian galleys, he failed to over- 
come the resistance of the inhabitants, and, after a siege of over 
six months, was compelled to retire before an army of Lom- 
bards and Romagnuols (October, 1173 2 ). 

The Pisans, in the meanwhile, "fearing lest anything should 
have been reported to the Emperor to the prejudice of the 
Pisan people by the said Archbishop or by any other," de- 
spatched Count Gherardo Gherardesca and Master Ruberto 
Grugni to the Imperial Court to complain of the injuries done 
them by the Legate. Frederick, who was preparing for a fresh 
Italian expedition, received the envoys graciously and "sent 
them back with joy and with his good favour 3 . " The war in 
Tuscany languished, and the Genoese, whose energies were 
distracted by a quarrel with the Malaspina 4 , were no longer able 
adequately to protect their sea-borne traffic. Six richly laden 
merchantmen were captured by Pisan privateers 5 , and, in 
August, Teperto di Duodo, who had been sent with a galley 
to renew the alliance with the King of Majorca 6 , "inflicted 
great damage on the Genoese as he returned along the coast of 
Provence, capturing their ships and sinking them in the abyss 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 67; Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 383. 

2 Arch. Stor. It. Tom. vin, p. 172 {Cronaca Altinate), p. 264 (Cronaca di 
Mario); Marangone, ubi cit. p. 264; Hodgson, The Early Hist, of Venice, op. 
cit. pp. 293, 294; Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 254-256. 

3 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 68; Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 385. 

4 Oberti Cancellarii Annates, pp. 255-257. 

5 " Quidam ex nobilibus Pisanorum civibus galeas super Ianuenses viriliter 
armaverunt, etc." Compare Volpe, op. cit. p. 214: "L' iniziativa privata era 
sempre il principio e la molla di tutto; poteva un momento rallentarsi in 
tempi ordinari, ma al primo bisogno, essa ripullulava su da mille piccole 
sorgenti, ed allora il comune non era piu il goverho, ma i cittadini, soli o 
associati." 

6 Amari, Storia dei Musuhnani, op. cit. in, 519, note 1. 



PLATE XIII 




PLATE XIV 




THE CAMPANILE 



1 174] CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE 205 

of the sea 1 ." Neither did warlike operations monopolise the 
energies of Pisa. It was in this very year that the foundations 
of the Leaning Tower were laid and that Bonannus, the first 
architect, began to build 2 . 

In 1 1 74 the Count Macharius of S. Miniato made peace 
with the Florentines and Pisans, and the exiles were permitted 
to return to their homes. " Unde," says Marangone, " Lucenses 
magnam habuerunt tristitiam 3 ." Their alliance with Siena could 
profit them little if S. Miniato was in the hands of their enemies, 
and to make matters worse, in July the Sienese were utterly 
routed by the Florentines beneath the walls of Asciano 4 . More- 
over, the increased activity of the Genoese, during the summer 
of 1 174, can have done but little to redress the balance. The 
Pisans suffered no greater damage than they themselves inflicted. 
If they lost "a great new ship" and two galleys, one on its re- 
turn voyage from Sardinia and another, which was manned by 
Pisan pirates, off Marseilles, they were able to set down on the 
credit side of their account "duas naves magnas et alias quam 
plures naviculas," a ship with a cargo of over three thousand 
pounds in value, and a great galliot coming from St Gilles, laden 
with cloth and hides 5 . The combatants were weary of a war in 
which neither of them could hope to gain any permanent ad- 
vantage, and, in the autumn of 1175, in that same Pavia where 
the coronation of Barisone of Arborea had added fresh fuel to 
the flames of discord, the representatives of Pisa, Florence, 
Genoa and Lucca appeared before the Imperial Curia and ac- 
cepted a compromise imposed upon them by the Emperor. By 
the treaty of the 6th of November, it was stipulated that Sar- 
dinia should be divided between the Pisans and the Genoese; 

1 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 68. 

2 Ibid. p. 69 : "Anno Domini mclxxiiii. Indictione vi, quinto idus Augusti. 
Campanilis Sanctae Mariae rotundus fundatus est. Sequenti anno, factus 
gradus unus in circuitu." Compare Da Morrona, Pisa illustrata, etc., op. 
cit. 1, 407. 

3 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 69. 

* Sanzanome, Gesta Florentinorum, p. 134; G. Villani, Cronica, lib. v, c. vi. 
The Asciano here spoken of is, of course, Asciano in Val d' Ombrone (see 
Repetti, Dizionario cited, 1, 151) and must not be confounded with the 
Asciano at the foot of Monte Pisano. 

6 Marangone, ubi cit. pp. 70, 71. 



206 CHRISTIAN OF MAYENCE [ch. xv 

that the tower of Viareggio should be destroyed, and that the 
Pisans should desist from falsifying the money of Lucca 1 . Otto- 
bono Scriba would have us believe that the Genoese thus defi- 
nitely obtained that medietatem Sardinee which they had so long 
desired; but, after the concession and revocation of so many 
privileges, a new Imperial grant may well have been regarded 
by the Pisans as a matter of very little importance, intended 
rather to emphasize the status of Sardinia as a province of the 
Empire than to bring about a change in the political conditions. 
There seems to have been no material division of the island, 
no delimitation of confines, and it is probable that the treaty 
simply recognized existing facts. At the moment, Pisa was pre- 
dominant in the Logoduro and in Gallura, Genoa in Arborea 
and in the Cagliaritano 2 . As to the clause concerning the coin- 
ing of money, the Pisans would appear simply to have ignored 
it 3 . To obtain the destruction of the Tower of Viareggio, it was 
well worth their while to agree to terms which, from the nature 
of the case, it was impossible for their enemies to enforce. What 
the Lucchesi actually did gain was the return of numerous vil- 
lages and churches which had been taken from them during the 
war. A few weeks after the conclusion of peace, Damiano and 
Pandolfo, Canons of the Cathedral of Lucca, received from the 
Pisan Consul Ildeprando possession of the pievi of Miliano, 
Tripalle, Monte Castello, Aqui, Forcoli, Ceuli, Capanoli, Cer- 
reto, etc., all of which belonged to the Bishop of Lucca and 
had been occupied by the Pisans 4 . 

1 Otoboni Scribae Annates Ianuenses, in Annali Genovesi di Cqffaro e de' 
suoi continuatori, a cura di L. T. Belgrano e di Cesare Imperiale di Sant' 
Angelo, vol. n, pp. 8, 9; Manfroni, op. cit. p. 249; Volpe, op. cit. p. 215. 
Compare also Ptolemaei Lucensis Annales, p. 58: "Eodem anno invenitur 
sententia lata per imperatorem Fredericum contra Pisanos de moneta non 
cudenda ea forma et cuneo, qua et quo Lucenses cudere possunt." 

2 Besta, op. cit. 1, 146, 147. 

3 Ptolemaei Lucensis Annates, p. 58, ad annum 1176. 

4 Volpe, op. cit. p. 216, citing Mem. e doc. lucch. iv, 11; doc. 134, ann. 1175. 



CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH 
THE COMMUNES DEPRIVED OF THEIR CONTADI 

Unfortunately for the Sienese, they seem to have taken no 
part in the compromise of Pavia, and the Florentines were thus 
enabled to press home the advantage that the battle of Asciano 
had given them. By the treaty of March, 1176, in which not 
only the Emperor but also Christian of Mayence and Count 
Macharius were expressly named, the Florentines were ac- 
knowledged as the legitimate masters of the whole contado of 
Fiesole and Florence, and obtained one-half of the possessions 
of the Sienese in Poggibonsi. Several of the conditions were 
particularly harsh, and the Commune which was destined soon 
to become the firm ally of Pisa was terribly crippled 1 . Florence 
was slowly achieving a position of ascendency in Tuscany, and, 
ere the century closed, many of her neighbours had learned to 
regard her with much the same feelings of misgiving as Ger- 
many inspired in the other European nations between 1906 
and 1914, and as the United States still continues to inspire in 
the Latin republics of South America 2 . That time, however, 
was not yet, and the cordial relations which existed between 
Pisa and Florence were not immediately impaired by the Peace 
of Pavia. It had not yet occurred to the Pisans that the friend- 
ship of Florence was a dangerous thing; and the Florentines, 
who were anxious to reap the full benefit of the treaty of July, 
1 171, scrupulously lived up to their part of the contract. When 
they dictated terms to Siena, the interests of their allies were 

1 R. Arch, di Stato in Siena, Caleffo Vecchio, c te 9*, 12; Rondoni, Sena 
Vetus o it Comune di Siena dalle origini alia Battaglia di Montaperti (Fratelli 
Bocca, Torino, 1892), p. 41; Villari, I primi due secoli, etc., op. cit. 1, 127; 
Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. pp. 100-103. 

2 Compare "The Shadow of the Colossus," in The Times Literary Sup- 
plement of August 3rd, 1916, p. 361. 



208 THE COMMUNES [ch.xvi 

not forgotten, and the use of Pisan money was imposed upon 
the vanquished 1 . 

Nevertheless, so unnatural a union could not long endure. 
The price which the Florentines had demanded for their as- 
sistance was a very high one, and now that the imperative need 
of that assistance was over, the Pisans began to perceive that 
they had been made the victims of a most unconscionable bar- 
gain. Their situation was, in fact, analogous to that of a man who 
had borrowed money to tide over a momentary embarrassment, 
and finds himself called upon to pay usurious interest for the 
rest of his life. Then, too, the very different positions occupied 
by the allies with regard to the Empire were, in the long run, 
bound to create discord between them. Pisa had already received 
all the juridical sanctions necessary to invest her with a definite 
political existence and to give her a recognized place in the 
feudal hierarchy, and no sooner was the brief period of anarchy 
produced by the intervention of Christian in Tuscany at an 
end than she returned to her old allegiance and lived for the 
old hopes and the old ambitions. Florence, on the other hand, 
was, in the eye of the law, still nothing better than a voluntary 
private association; and though, from time to time, Imperial 
ministers had condescended to treat with her, they had done 
so not with any intention of extending a tacit recognition to her 
usurpations, but only because accomplished facts were stronger 
than legal rights. Between a city the welfare of which was in- 
timately bound up with that of the Empire and a city which 
would concede the Empire nothing and regarded it with per- 
petual distrust, lasting friendship was impossible. 

For the moment, however, there was no violent clashing of 
interests. The battle of Legnano (May 29, 1176) had turned the 
thoughts of Frederick towards peace, and after long and diffl- ' 
cult negotiations in which the Archbishop of Mayence played 
a prominent part 2 , he was reconciled to the Pope on the 24th 

1 The Sienese swore to "accipere vel tollere in arrengo" the Pisan money 
which the Florentines then had or should thereafter have. See Volpe, op. 
cit. p. 216, note 4. 

2 The best English account of these negotiations with which I am acquainted 
is to be found in Hodgson, The Early History of Venice, op. cit. pp. 306-315. 



1 177] DEPRIVED OF THEIR CONTADI 209 

of July, 1 177, at Venice. Eight days afterwards the terms of 
peace were solemnly sworn to in the Patriarch's palace, the 
Emperor, the Pope and a crowd of great princes and prelates 
being present at the ceremony. A Venetian chronicler tells us 
that the city was thronged with dignitaries from Germany, 
France, England, Spain, Hungary and all Italy. There were 
the Archbishop of Cologne with four hundred men, the Patri- 
arch of Aquileia and the Archbishops of Mayence and Magde- 
burg with three hundred men each ; the suite of Count Leopold 
of Austria numbered a hundred and sixty, and three hundred 
and thirty followed Count Roger of Andria, the second envoy 
of the King of Sicily 1 . Among the rest were the representatives 
of Pisa and Florence. The former sent her Consuls with a retinue 
of knights; the latter the Archdeacon Ruggero 2 . Early in the 
new year (1178) Frederick came to Tuscany 3 , sojourning for 
a few days at S. Miniato and visiting both Lucca and Pisa 4 . 
He was welcomed with enthusiasm by the Pisans, and, on the 
30th of January, before leaving the city, in the presence of the 
Marquises of Montferrat and Malaspina, of Macharius Count 
of S. Miniato, and of Count Gherardo Gherardesca and other 
feudatories, he confirmed the Canons of the Cathedral in all 
their ancient privileges 5 . Florence, which was then disturbed 
by the insurrection of the Uberti 6 , he did not visit, and Florence 
of all the Tuscan Communes showed itself the least inclined to 
manifest any signs of rejoicing at the conclusion of the peace. 

In June the Emperor crossed the Alps on his return to his 
Burgundian Kingdom, leaving the Archbishop of Mayence as 
his Legate in Italy. Christian is said to have burned the pallium 
which he had received from Paschal, and to have accepted a 

1 Cronica Altinate, in Arch. Stor. It. Serie I, Tom. viii, 173, 177-183. 

2 Volpe, op. cit. p. 218, on the authority of Pertz, Historia ducum veneti- 
corwn, p. 87. 

3 According to Hodgson (op. cit. p. 323), " the Emperor spent all the winter 
in Central Italy, keeping Christmas at Assisi and passing into Tuscany early 
in the new year"; but we know from the Annates Ianuenses (ubi cit. p. 12) 
that "mense Ianuarii venit in Ianuam." 

4 Volpe, op. cit. p. 218, citing Gottifred of Viterbo (Pertz, xxn, 330). 

5 Bonaini, Dipl. pisani, p. 67, doc. xxB. 

6 Villani, lib. v, cap. ix; Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. pp. 106-108. 

H. 14 



210 THE COMMUNES [ch. xvi 

fresh one from Alexander. It is certain that he was now hand 
and glove with the Pope whom he had reinstated in Rome on 
the 1 2th of March. In August, Calixtus, the third of Frederick's 
Antipopes, made submission. Nevertheless, Christian's recon- 
ciliation with the Papacy did nothing to allay the ill-will of the 
Florentines, and it was probably largely due to their influence 
that, in 1179, Pisa, Lucca, Pistoia and many of the feudatories 
of Tuscany joined with them in a league against the Imperial 
Legate, under the leadership of Conrad of Montferrat, the 
friend of the Pisans in the East. On the side of Christian were 
the Count Guido and the Sienese ; but he was taken captive by 
the allies and imprisoned for many months, in defiance of the 
protests and threats of the Emperor 1 . Two years later he died 
beneath the walls of Rome in the service of Lucius III, who 
had succeeded Alexander in 1181. The grateful Pope lamented 
him as vir valde providus et magnificus, and ordered that prayers 
should be said for his soul in all the churches of Germany 2 . 
He appears to have fallen a victim to the same malarial fever 
which had carried off his great colleague Rainald fourteen years 
before. 

The co-operation of the Pisans and Lucchesi in the war with 
the Imperial Legate seems to have done much to obliterate the 
memory of ancient wrongs, and, in 1181, negotiations were 
entered into with a sincere desire of settling all outstanding 
differences. A treaty of alliance satisfactory to both Communes 
was sworn to on the 16th of June, in the church of S. Prospero 
in Seturiano 3 . Three years later another treaty was made be- 
tween Lucca and Florence 4 , with the result that, when Frederick 
revisited Tuscany, in 1185, he found that the cities, no longer 
at war with one another, had seized the opportunity to oppress 

1 Volpe, op. cit. p. 218, on the authority of Ilgen, Corrado di Monferrato, 
trad. Cerrato (Casale, 1890), p. 54 et seq. See also Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. 
p. 109. 

2 Gregorovius, op. cit. vol. 11, lib. viii, c. vi, p. 601, note 28. 

3 Tommasi, Sommario delta Storia di Lucca, ubi cit. pp. 47-49; Tronci, 
Annali pisani, ad ann. 1182; Roncioni, ubi cit. pp. 399-403; Ptolemaei 
Lucensis Annales, p. 60. See also Bonaini, Dipt, pisani, pp. 82-84, doc. 
xxii B, xxiii A, xxiii A*. 

4 Santini, Documenti, No. xiv, p. 20. 






1 1 85] DEPRIVED OF THEIR CONTADI 211 

and subjugate the feudatories of the Empire. Already, on the 
5th of March, at Castellarano, he had granted a diploma in 
favour of the cattani of Garfagnana and Versilia, taking them 
under his protection and ordering the Lucchesi to rebuild the 
fortresses which they had demolished 1 . On his arrival at 
S. Miniato, in July, the nobles of the contado flocked to do 
him homage and to complain of the usurpations and oppressions 
of the Communes. On the 25th he liberated many of them 
from the jurisdiction of Lucca 2 . On the 31st he entered Flor- 
ence. There he was once more assailed by the lamentations of 
the feudatories who declared with one voice that "the Com- 
mune of Florence had forcibly taken and occupied many of 
their towns and castles, against the honour of the Empire 3 . " 
The case against the Florentines, at any rate, was too clear for 
doubt. They had subjugated the Cadolinghi, humiliated the 
Guidi, and, after despoiling the Count Alberto of his strong 
fortress of Mangona, had flung him into prison (October, 
1 1 84)*. It is not impossible that the news of their aggressions 
had hastened the coming of the Emperor, and he dealt with 
them sternly and promptly. According to the chroniclers, it 
was then that all the cities of Tuscany, except Pisa and Pistoia, 
were deprived of their contadi 5 . Pisa, for all her backsliding, 
was still the most loyal city in Tuscany, and Pistoia was no 
doubt spared because she was situated between Lucca and 
Florence and was at enmity with them both. Probably too, she 
possessed a powerful advocate in the Count Alberto whose cause 
she had been willing to espouse against the Florentines, until 
their alliance with Lucca made her intervention too hazardous 6 . 

1 Tommasi, op. cit. pp. 54,55. 

2 Villari, I primi due secoli, etc., op. cit. 1, 133. 

3 G. Villani, lib. v, c. 12. 

4 See Santini, Documenti, 1, xv, and xvi, p. 26, 1. 5 : "postquam ego comes 
Albertus exiero de prescione." 

5 As to this matter there has been much difference of opinion. Some 
modern scholars accept the statement of the chroniclers without demur; 
others regard it as little short of a fable. For a long discussion of the question, 
see Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. pp. 123-133. Compare also Villari, op. cit. 
1, 133 et seq., and N. Rodolico, Introduzione alia Cronaca fiorentina di Mar- 
chione di Coppo Stefani (Citta di Castello, 1903), pp. Hi, liii. 

6 See Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. pp. 118, 119. 

14—2 



212 THE COMMUNES [ch.xvi 

After remaining in Florence long enough to pass sentence, 
Frederick shook the dust of the city off his feet, and journeyed 
southward 1 to complete arrangements for the marriage of his 
son Henry with Constantia of Sicily 2 . The Peace of Venice had 
been an undoubted personal triumph for Alexander III, but it 
had brought with it unexpected consequences. The fifteen years* 
truce then concluded with William II had ripened into a per- 
manent peace, and, to the alarm of the Papacy, Germany and 
Italy were about to be dynastically united. The wedding took 
place in Milan, on the 27th of January, 1186, and there 
Frederick conferred the crown of Italy upon the bridegroom. 
He remained in Lombardy till the following June, and then 
crossed the Alps for the last time, rejoicing in the thought that 
the Empire would soon include Naples and Sicily. Meanwhile, 
Henry had appeared in Tuscany, intent upon carrying out the 
policy of his father for the humiliation of all the Communes 
except Pisa and Pistoia. This he endeavoured to accomplish 
under the specious form of privileges confirmed or newly 
granted to the cities, full of professions of affection and good 
will, but, in fact, tending only to limit the authority of the civic 
magistrates 3 . Thus, on the 30th of April, at Borgo S. Donnino, 
after belauding to the skies the fidelity of Lucca to the Empire, 
he confirmed to her the "most ancient privilege" of coining 
money, and jurisdiction within the city and for six miles out- 
side the walls, excepting, even in that restricted area, the fiefs 

1 He passed through Poggibonsi on the 2nd of August, and, after visiting 
Siena, reached Montalcino on the 8th. According to Villani (v, 13), this was 
the occasion upon which "il detto Federigo assedio la citta di Siena ma non 
V ebbe" ; but as a matter of fact the siege of Siena took place in the following 
year, "Anno Domini 1186. Obsedit Rex Henricus, qui postea fuit Im- 
perator, Civitatem Senensium, et in proximo anno praecedenti Fredericus 
pater ejus eandem intravit Civitatem." Cronica Sanese, in Muratori, Rer. 
Ital. Script, xv, cols. 1 1 and 16. This was the occasion of the fabulous victory 
of Rosaio. See Rondoni, Sena Vetus, op. cit. pp. 20, 21. 

2 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad arm. 1185. In September Frederick was 
in the Ducato. See my History of Perugia, p. 59. 

3 Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. p. 139 et seq. In view of the considerations 
there set forth, I am disposed to believe that, in my History of Perugia, p. 60, 
I may have overestimated the argument to be deduced from the cordial 
expressions used by Henry in the privilege which he granted to the Perugians 
on the 7th of August, 11 86. 



1 187] DEPRIVED OF THEIR CONTADI 213 

of the nobles 1 . In October, by a similar diploma, the jurisdiction 
of the Sienese over their contado was reduced to the narrowest 
limits 2 , and then, in June, 1187, came the turn of Florence. 
Florence, who had never sought the grace of any King or Em- 
peror, was to have a privilege forced upon her which would 
confirm and sanction that diminutio capitis decreed against her 
by Frederick. Accordingly, at Ortricoli in the territory of Vi- 
terbo, Henry declared that, "in consideration of the devoted 
services rendered by our faithful citizens of Florence to our 
most serene father Frederick, Emperor of the Romans," he was 
minded to single out, maintain and amplify the city and all the 
inhabitants thereof, to which end he granted them jurisdiction, 
with rights equal to his own, over the city of Florence itself 
and outside it, within certain limits, to wit, towards Settimo 
and Campi for three miles; towards Fiesole for one mile, and 
in the other parts around Florence for ten miles, "excepto ac 
salvo iure nobilium et militum, a quibus etiam volumus ut 
Florentini nichil exigant." In recognition of this "magnificent 
concession," the citizens were to offer every year, on the Kalends 
of May, a good samite (bonum examitum) to the King 3 . Thus 
was the ancient dependence of Fiesole on the Commune of 
Florence abrogated and the Bishop of that diocese reinstated 
in all his feudal rights. The Bishop of Florence also, regained 
his old immunities with complete exemption from civic con- 
trol, and the Alberti and the Guidi once more came to their 
own. At the same time, Henry provided for the administration 
of the various contadi of Tuscany by the appointment of new 
officials. An Anselmus of Konigsberg is recorded in the docu- 
ments as Praeses Tusciae and as comes teutonicus. In 1186 Hen- 
ricus Faffus is mentioned as Count of Arezzo and Siena ; while 
a Henricus teutonicus, comes florentinus appears among the wit- 
nesses who attested the confirmation of the privilege by which, 

1 Santini, Studi, etc. op. cit. p. 140; Tommasi, Sommario di Storia Luc- 
chese, ubi cit. p. 56. 

2 R. Arch, di Stato in Siena, Riformagioni, Perg. del Ottobre, 1186; Lisini, 
Inventario delle pergamene conservate nel diplomatico dalV anno 736 alV anno 
1250 (Siena, Lazzeri, 1908), Parte 1, p. 105 ; Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. p. 141. 

3 Santini, Documenti, etc., op. cit. p. xxxvii; Villari, I primi due secoli, etc., 
op. cit. 1, 133-137- 



214 THE COMMUNES [ch.xvi 

in 1 185, Frederick had liberated Borgo a Moriano from the 
jurisdiction of Lucca 1 . 

It is probable that, so long as Henry remained in Italy, these 
officials exercised a more or less effective control in their several 
districts; but after his departure for Germany, at the end of 
1 187, their authority rapidly declined. In 1191 Conrad of 
Liizelhard, who had already administered the Romagna, was 
invested with the Marquisate of Tuscany 2 ; and, in 1195, after 
Henry, now Emperor, had achieved the subjugation of the Two 
Sicilies, he bestowed the inheritance of the Countess Matilda 
on his brother Philip of Suabia 3 . In the same year the autonomy 
of the city of Florence itself was violated by the arbitrary ap- 
pointment of the Pisan Raniero Gaetani to the office of Potesta 4 . 
This was no doubt rendered possible by the fact that the destruc- 
tion of feudal castles, combined with voluntary immigration, 
had established a considerable number of lesser feudatories 
within the city walls who were determined to share the emolu- 
ments as well as the burdens of citizenship, to oppress rather 
than suffer oppression. The feudal contest had, in fact, been 
transferred from the contado to the city itself, and, as in the 
contado so in the city, the feudatories looked for assistance to 
the Emperor. During the eight short years of his reign, Henry 
acquired a degree of authority to which none of his predecessors 
had ever attained 5 , and it is not impossible that, but for his 
early death, he might have succeeded in subverting the liberties 
of the Communes. His system of government, however, en- 
dured so short a time that, even if it had been less vexatious 
than it actually was, it had no opportunity to take root in the 
affections of the people. Men's habits of thought and action 
are not easily changed, and in estimating the difficulties with 

1 Santini, S.tudi, elc, op. cit. p. 141. 

2 Ibid. p. 157. 

3 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad annum. 

4 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 312, 313; Santini, op. cit. p. 175. This "Rainerius 
Gaetani had occupied many important offices in his native city, and is con- 
tinually mentioned in the Pisan annals from the year 1 161 ." See Marangone, 
ubi cit. pp. 24-49. 

5 See Lanzani, Storia dei Comuni Italiani, op. cit. p. 274, and compare my 
A History of Perugia, pp. 61, 62. 



1 197] DEPRIVED OF THEIR CONTADI 215 

which the Imperial officials were confronted, we must not for- 
get to give due weight to the religious bond which existed be- 
tween the cities and their respective contadi. In the minds of 
the inhabitants of the country districts, the sentiment of loyalty 
to the Commune was intimately connected with the sentiment 
of devotion to the Patron Saint of the City and to the Chiesa 
Maggiore. The Heavenly Hosts fought on the side of the citizens ; 
and Our Lady of Siena and S. Giovanni of Florence were power- 
ful allies of the free Communes 1 . In mediaeval Italy, as in 
ancient Greece, men could not conceive of a State that did not 
appropriate the forces of religion as one of the principal institu- 
tions of the polity 2 . 

1 See my Palio and Ponte, passim, and especially Chaps. II and in of Book I. 

2 Compare Emil Reich, General History of Western Nations (London, 
Macmillan, 1908), vol. 1, p. 290. 



CHAPTER THE SEVENTEENTH 
PISA AND THE EMPEROR HENRY VI 

While the other Communes of Tuscany were thus humiliated 
and oppressed, Pisa was basking in the sunshine of Imperial 
favour, and dreaming dreams of a vast sea-born Empire. She 
had already entered into rivalry with Venice in the Adriatic 1 , 
"in non modicam erecta audaciam," as says the Cronica Alti- 
nate 2 ; and, in 1188, a treaty was concluded with the rebellious 
Zara 3 . In Syria her prestige was growing apace, and the services 
which her sons, and especially the Societas Vermigliorum*, ren- 
dered to Conrad of Montferrat in the defence of Tyre (1187) 
were magnificently rewarded with praise and privileges 5 . In 
the same year an army was sent to Sardinia, where the Genoese 
had been intriguing with Agalbursa, the widow of Barisone of 
Arborea, and with the Judges of Cagliari and Torres 6 ; " et mer- 
catores Ianue omnes quoscumque [Pisani] invenerunt, bonis 
suis expoliarunt et de toto iudicatu Kalaris eiecerunt." In re- 
venge, the Genoese sent an expedition to Corsica and destroyed 
the fortress of Bonifacio 7 . It was, however, speedily rebuilt, and 
became a veritable nest of corsairs, who, under the tacit pro- 
tection of Pisa, preyed continually on the commerce of Genoa 8 . 
Meanwhile, the news that the Holy Sepulchre had once more 
fallen into the hands of the infidel re-awakened the old cru- 

1 That, before 1180, there had been conflicts between the Pisans and the 
Venetians at Almyro in the Gulf of Volo, and that the Pisans had afterwards 
penetrated into the Adriatic and espoused the cause of Ancona, is clear from 
Miiller, op. cit. doc. xviii, pp. 20-23. 

2 Arch. Stor. It. Serie 1, Tom. vni, pp. 20-23. 

3 Bonaini, Dipl. pisani, p. 96, doc. xxvu. Compare Hodgson, Early 
History of Venice, op. cit. pp. 337, 349. 

4 As to the Societas Vermigliorum, see Miiller, op. cit. pp. 407, 408. 

5 Miiller, op. cit. pp. 26-31, 31-35, docs, xxm, xxiv, xxv, xxvu, xxvm. 

6 Besta, op. cit. 1, 153, 154. 

7 Otoboni Scribae Annates Ianuenses, pp. 24, 25. 

8 Ibid. pp. 54, 64-66. Compare Volpe, op. cit. p. 274 and note 1. 



1 194] PISA AND EMPEROR HENRY VI 217 

sading fervour throughout Europe. Our own Richard, then 
Count of Poitou, was the first to take the Cross, in November, 
1 187; the Kings of France and England were reconciled; and, 
resolving that the sunset of his life should be even more splendid 
than its noon, the Emperor Frederick, now nearly seventy years 
old, started for Palestine with a great army (1189). 

Gregory VIII, who had been elected Pope on the 25th of 
October, 1187, journeyed to Pisa to make peace between the 
two great maritime republics; but died within a week of his 
arrival. His successor, who took the name of Clement III, was 
consecrated in the Pisan Cathedral on the 20th of December, 
and continued the good work with so much energy that, on the 
13th of February, 1188, a thousand citizens of Pisa and a thou- 
sand citizens of Genoa, beginning with the Consuls, swore upon 
the Gospels to bury their differences and to obey the command- 
ment of the Pope 1 . With his own hands Clement gave the 
Banner of St Peter to Archbishop Ubaldo, "to the end that he 
might be the Standard-Bearer of the Army and of all Christians, 
and Legate of the Apostolic See over all Christians 2 ." Fifty 
galleys were made ready, and to Pisa, still the acknowledged 
Tusciae Provinciae caput, crusaders flocked from half the towns 
of Central Italy. The Sienese alone sent five hundred fighting 
men under the command of Filippo Malavolti 3 . About the 
middle of September they put out to sea, and, after wintering 
at Messina, reached Tyre on the 6th of April, 1189. On the 
28th of the following August Guy de Lusignan sat down before 
the city of Acre, with an army of seven hundred knights and 
nine thousand foot. The Pisans had long been famed for their 
skill in the construction of siege machinery 4 , an art in which 

1 Dal Borgo, Dipl. pisani, pp. 1 14-144. 

2 Muratori, Rer. Italic. Script, vi, 191 : "Pontifex iste, in praefata Maiori 
Ecclesia Pisana, petiit, rogavit et exoratus est Pisanos ut succurrerent ad 
recuperandam Hierusalem Sanctam; et propriis manibus dedit vexillum 
Sancti Petri Domino Ubaldo, Pisano archiepiscopo, ut esset Vexillifer exercitus 
et omnium Christianorum, et Legatus Apostolicae Sedis in omnes Christianos .'* 

3 Roncioni, ubi cit. p. 417 ; Malavolti, Historia de' fatti e guerre de y Sanesi, 
op. cit. Parte 1, lib. 1, p. 37*. 

4 Nor was their reputation merely local. Thus, when Lisbon was taken 
from the Moors by Alfonso I, in 1147, we find a Pisan architect in the 
besieging army: " Quidam Pisanus natione, vir magnae industriae," who 



218 PISA AND EMPEROR HENRY VI [ch. xvii 

they were unsurpassed by any other nation, and the chroniclers 
of the Third Crusade bear ample testimony to their efficiency 
and valour 1 . Acre surrendered on the 12th of July, 1191, and 
the Pisans, Genoese and Venetians resumed possession of the 
streets, churches, warehouses and quays, acquired by former 
treaties, and now confirmed to them by a series of new privi- 
leges 2 . 

From the arrival of Richard Cceur de Lion in Palestine, the 
Pisans became his devoted adherents, and followed him in all 
his enterprises 3 . When he supported the claim of Guy de 
Lusignan to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, they unhesitatingly 
did the like; the Genoese, on the other hand, espoused the 
cause of Conrad of Montferrat ; and, in February, 1192, while 
Richard was at Ascalon, the two nations came to blows in the 
streets of Acre. Both Conrad and the Duke of Burgundy 
hastened to the assistance of the Genoese; but the Pisans, " vir- 
tute sua confisi et causa meliore," as says the English chronicler, 
more than held their own. On the news of Richard's approach, 
Conrad withdrew to Tyre, taking the Duke with him. Although 
we know nothing of its terms, the pacts unitas et concordiae 
which the King of England imposed upon the combatants was, 
no doubt, satisfactory to his allies 4 . A little later Guy de Lusig- 
nan seems to have rewarded their services by "grans dons et 
grans franchises" in the island of Cyprus 5 ; and, in 1192, in 
spite of the ruthless vengeance which they, together with the 
other Latins, had taken for the massacres of 1182 6 , the Pisans 

built "turrim ligneam mirae altitudinis." The Crusaders were a mixed body 
of Germans from Cologne, of English and of Flemings, who had started from 
Dartmouth for Palestine. On their way they landed at Oporto and joined 
forces with Alfonso. The Pisan seems to have come with the contingent 
from Cologne. Pertz, xvi, Ann. Magdeburgenses , p. 189. 

1 See the extracts printed by Miiller, op. cit. pp. 411-414, 424,425. 

2 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 285 ; Hodgson, op. cit. p. 339, and, for the privileges 
granted to the Pisans, Miiller, op. cit. docs, xxxn, xxxiii, xxxv, xxxvi. 

3 Miiller, op. cit. pp. 424-426, where a number of passages from the 
chronicles are printed in extenso. 

4 Itinerarium peregrinorum et gesta regis Ricardi ; auctore ut videtur Ricardo 
Canonico S. Trinitatis Londoniensis (ed. W. Stubbs), vol. 1, pp. 321-323. 

5 Miiller, op. cit. pp. 427, 470. 

6 Gibbon, chap, lx; Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 264,265. The narratives of 
William of Tyre and of Nicetas will be found in Miiller, op. cit. pp. 418-423. 



1 194] PISA AND EMPEROR HENRY VI 219 

were once more re-established in Constantinople by the Emperor 
Issac Angelus 1 . In the absence of the Venetians, who took but 
little part in the Third Crusade, they were, at this time, the 
predominant maritime power in Syrian waters ; and when, after 
the departure of Richard, the new King of Jerusalem, Henry of 
Champagne, attempted to punish them for intrigues against 
him, he learned to his cost that, even though he had leagued 
himself with the Genoese, the task was quite beyond his power. 
Deprived of their possessions in Acre, the Pisans promptly put 
out to sea and waylaid all merchantmen leaving, or entering 
the ports of Syria. Henry was helpless; and in January, 1194, 
they were reinstated in all their privileges 2 . Little recked they 
that discord between Christians had wrought the ruin of the 
Third Crusade, or that a three years' truce and a narrow strip of 
coast, from Acre to Ascalon, were the sole results of an expe- 
dition which had drained the nobility of Western Europe 3 . So 
long as their wharves and warehouses were piled with spices 
and fine linen, with silks and purple and precious stones, their 
principal object was achieved. Their zeal for the Cross was 
always subservient to their desire of gain; and an ugly story 
is told of a Pisan merchant who hoarded his wheat while the 
besiegers of Acre were dying of hunger, until, at the last, by 
manifest judgment of God, his house was burned with fire and 
all the grain that was therein 4 . Yet, if they served Mammon 
faithfully, they sought to serve God also ; and it was from this 
Crusade that their galleys returned deeply laden with the sacred 
dust of Calvary, for the better repose of those who should sleep 
their last sleep in the new cemetery that Archbishop Ubaldo 
was minded to build "for the love he bore his city 5 ." 

Meanwhile, in Italy, it seemed that the highest hopes of the 
Pisans were nearing fulfilment. While yet they were besieging 
Acre, William II of Sicily died (November, 11 89) and Henry 

1 Muller, op. cit. doc. xxxiv, pp. 40-58. 

2 Muller, op. cit., Illustrazioni ai document! XL e xlv, p. 427. 

3 See Archer and Kingsford, The Crusades, op. cit. p. 348. 

4 Itinerarium peregrinorwn et gesta regis Ricardi, op. cit. pp. 136, 137. 

5 See The Story of Pisa, op. cit. pp. 197-201. 



220 PISA AND EMPEROR HENRY VI [ch. xvii 

prepared to take possession of the Sicilian kingdom. Typically 
German in his brutality and bad faith, he had inherited much 
of his father's determination and energy, and was at least his 
equal in ambition; the fact that the Pope had bestowed the 
crown he coveted upon Tancred of Lecce only hardened his 
resolution; and even before the death of Barbarossa (10 June, 
1 190), Heinrich von Poppenheim, the Arrigo Testa of the 
Italian chroniclers, had been sent to Tuscany to gather troops 
and money for the coming conflict 1 . Henry's main concern was, 
however, the maritime side of the expedition. Tancred possessed 
a powerful navy under the command of the celebrated Mar- 
garitus, "the King of the Sea," as men called him; and to ob- 
tain the ships with which to meet his enemy, Henry naturally 
turned for assistance to Pisa. Already in October, 1187, and 
again in August, 1 190, he had shown his good will towards the 
Republic by confirming the privilege of 1162 2 ; and when, after 
overcoming the opposition of Henry the Lion, he once more 
crossed the Alps to conduct the campaign in person, he was 
fully assured of Pisan co-operation. At this time, the govern- 
ment of the city was in the hands of Tedicio di Castagneto, the 
first "Potestas pisanae civitatis" whose name we encounter in 
Pisan annals, a member of the house of Gherardesca, and one 
of the most strenuous supporters of the Empire in Tuscany. 
Whatever the dangers from without, within the walls of Pisa 
the citizens were all devoted to the Emperor, and the Imperial 
policy was personified in Tedicio. 

On the nth of February, 1191, Henry was in Bologna, and 
on or before the 18th at Prato. Thence, without visiting Flor- 
ence, he passed through Lucca to Pisa; and there, on the 1st of 
March, the Potesta made oath of fealty in the name of the Com- 
mune and formally promised the co-operation of the Pisan fleet. 
In return, Henry granted a new privilege under his own hand, 
whereby all the concessions of former Emperors were renewed 
and increased 3 . The Pisan contado was once more delimited and 

1 Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. p. 154; Volpe, op. cit. p. 293. 

2 Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. p. 154. See p. 130 supra. 

3 Bonaini, Dipl. pisani, pp. 104-114, doc. xxxiv. The privilege is also 
published by Dal Borgo, Dipl. pisani, pp. 24-28, though in an imperfect 



1 194] PISA AND EMPEROR HENRY VI 221 

defined, but with greater particularity of detail than heretofore; 
a large number of towns and villages which had formerly be- 
longed to Volterra being specifically named as now belonging 
to Pisa. The citadel of Massa and Massa itself, with all its ap- 
purtenances, were granted to the Republic; Corsica was enume- 
rated among Pisan islands: " Ilba et Capraria et Gorgona et 
Planusia et Corsica " ; and, from Monte del Corbo 1 to the mouth 
of the Arno, from the foot of the mountains to the sea-shore, all 
persons save only the Pisans themselves were forbidden to con- 
struct "any building or fortification." Then followed the old 
magnificent concessions in the Norman kingdom: half of Pa- 
lermo, Messina, Salerno, Naples, together with half of the pro- 
ducts of their ports and territories ; the whole of Gaeta, Mazzara 
and Trapani, and, "in every other city which Tancred holds, 
a street convenient for Pisan merchants.' ' In Sicily, Calabria, 
Apulia and the Principality of Capua, "et per totum imperium 
nostrum," the merchants of the Republic were to be free to 
travel and to traffic without payment of custom, anchorage or 
other dues; while, in addition to all the rest, the Pisans were 
promised a third part of the accumulated Norman treasure: 
"dantis eis tertiam partem thesauri quern tenet Tancredus ut 
sit eorum 2 ." Finally, Henry dangled before their eyes the 
prospect of Imperial assistance in a war with Genoa, and the 
possession of Porto Venere, once theirs, but now the bulwark 
of their enemies on the confines of Tuscany 3 . The humiliation 

form and under a different date. He, however, gives a valuable analysis of 
the document, in the first volume of his Dissertazioni sopra V Istoria Pisana 
(Pisa, 1761), Parte l, pp. 159-167. 

1 "a loco dicto Corbo." See Repetti, Dizionario cited, 1, 827, and com- 
pare Dal Borgo, Dissertazioni, etc., op. cit. 1, 162. Monte del Corbo is men- 
tioned by Fazio degli Uberti in his Dittamondo, ill, 6: 

Da questo fiume [la Magra] Toscana comincia, 

Che cade in mare dal Monte del Corbo. 
Petrarca, also, in his Itinerarium Syriacum, speaks of "Corvum famosum 
scopulum," and tells us that it was situated "contra extremos Januenses 
fines." 

2 As to the vast wealth of the Sicilian kingdom, compare Amari, Storia 
del Musulmani, etc., op. cit. Ill, 552, 553. 

3 See Repetti, Dizionario cited, iv, 624, and p. 61 supra. Apparently, 
when the Genoese occupied Porto Venere, the Pisans had not appreciated 
its value, and made no attempt to enforce their rights. 



222 PISA AND EMPEROR HENRY VI [ch. xvii 

of Genoa ; the humiliation of Venice ; undisputed supremacy in 
the Tyrrhenian Sea, and maritime hegemony in all the Mediter- 
ranean; these were the prizes which might well be Pisa's, if 
Henry fulfilled his promises. What wonder that the enthusiasm 
of the citizens for the Sicilian expedition rose to fever-heat ? 

Meanwhile, the Tuscan levies were mustering at S. Quirico 
d' Orcia, the seat of Imperial administration in the Sienese con- 
tado. On the 6th of March Henry was at Siena, and thence, 
through S. Quirico and Montepulciano, he advanced to Rome. 
His enemy, Clement III, had died while he was yet in Tuscany, 
and Clement's successor, Celestine III, was too old and feeble 
to offer any effectual resistance to the arrogant demands of the 
German invader. On the 15th of April Henry received the 
Imperial crown at the hands of the reluctant Pontiff, and, in 
the following month, he sat down before the walls of Naples 
while the Pisan galleys blockaded the harbour. Captained by 
Richard of Acerra, the brother-in-law of Tancred, the citizens, 
however, offered an unexpectedly stubborn defence, and the 
Pisans found themselves hopelessly outnumbered by the Si- 
cilian fleets. Taught by the experience of his father, Henry had, 
it would seem, as yet made no overtures to the Genoese; and he 
no doubt fully realised how improbable it was that they would 
long act in unison with the Pisans. Nevertheless, desperate 
diseases call for desperate remedies, and when it became clear 
that the Pisans alone were unable to cope with Margaritus, he 
no longer hesitated to send emissaries to their rivals. The pro- 
mises made by Frederick, in 1162 1 , were renewed; and the 
Genoese accepted the bait with avidity. On the 15th of August 
thirty-three galleys put out to sea; but for all their hastening, 
they came too late. Before their arrival, the siege of Naples had 
been perforce abandoned, and they narrowly escaped destruction 
at the hands of Margaritus whom they encountered off M. 
Circello with a fleet of over seventy galleys 2 . 

For the next two years Henry was detained in Germany by 

1 See p. 136 supra. 

2 Otoboni Scribae Annates Ianuenses, pp. 38-41 ; Manfroni, op. cit. 
pp. 286-290. 



1 1 94] PISA AND EMPEROR HENRY VI 223 

a Guelf rising, followed by a dangerous rebellion in the Lower 
Rhineland; but he never wholly abandoned his designs on 
Southern Italy. Even if the demand that, in addition to his 
ransom, Richard Coeur de Lion should provide " fifty galleys 
with all their equipments and twenty knights for the Emperor's 
service for one year" was subsequently dropped, it is none the 
less significant 1 . Only for an expedition against the Normans 
could Henry require galleys. 

In 1 193 war was renewed between Venice and Pisa 2 ; and 
when, after the death of Tancred, in February, 1194, the Em- 
peror once more prepared to invade Sicily, he seems to have 
relied at least as much on the assistance of the Genoese as on 
that of the Pisans. Their cupidity was excited by the most lavish 
promises; and, in June, Henry himself appeared in Genoa. 
" If through you," declared the shameless German, "if through 
you, after God, I shall have acquired the kingdom of Sicily, 
mine will be the glory, yours the gain; for in it I may not abide 
with my Germans, but you and your descendants will remain 
there. Verily, that kingdom will be not mine but yours 3 ." Ac- 
cording to the testimony of their own official annalist, no doubt 
of the Emperor's good faith ever entered the minds of his dupes 4 ; 
and "so magnificently did they bestir themselves that, about 
the middle of August, they issued forth from the harbour of 
Genoa with horse-transports and galleys and arms and horse- 
men and with every other like thing which pertaineth unto an 
army." The Emperor, meanwhile, had prevailed upon the 
Pisans to co-operate with the Genoese, and, a few days later, 
the united fleets appeared before Gaeta. On the 23rd they 
reached Naples, and, on the 1st of September, they cast anchor 
in the harbour of Messina. Nowhere had they encountered 
any resistance ; Gaeta, Naples and the islands of Ischia, Capri 

1 Hoveden, ad ann. 1193 (Riley's translation), vol. 11, pp. 288, 296, 297. 

2 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 290. 

3 " Si per vos, post Deum, regnum Siciliae acquisiero, meus erit honor, 
set proficuum erit vestrum; ego enim in eo cum Theuthonicis meis manere 
non debeo, set vos et posteri vestri in eo manebitis; erit utique regnum illud 
non meum set vestrum." 

4 Otoboni Scribae Annales Ianuenses, p. 46. 



224 PISA AND EMPEROR HENRY VI [ch. xvii 

and Procida surrendered without striking a blow. Margaritus 
and the Norman navies have disappeared from the scene as if 
by magic 1 . The only naval battle of the war was fought between 
the Pisans and Genoese in the waters of Messina. It is thus 
described by Ottobono Scriba: 

"Now, after that they were come unto the city, it befell by 
the instigation of the devil that a very grievous battle was fought 
between the Genoese and Pisans. But, the contest having be- 
gun and continuing long, many Pisans fell on that day by the 
edge of the sword and were wounded even unto death. And 
the Genoese who fought with them on the seas took thirteen 
of their galleys and dispossessed them of them. Nevertheless, 
the Pisans took by force the fondaco of St John, wherein was 
but a little band of Genoese warriors ; and such of the Genoese 
as they found therein they made prisoners; also they carried 
thence very rich booty. The houses, moreover, wherein they 
found any of the Genoese they took, together with the wealth 
that was therein; whereby it came to pass that their share of 
victory and of honour was greater than that of the Genoese, 
albeit it was less splendid. Also they took Giovanni Awocato 
and other nobles who on that day had fought right valiantly 
for the common weal of the Genoese ; and for divers days they 
held them captive in the palace which was of Margaritus 2 , to 
the shame and infamy of the rest. Wherefore, on the following 
day [2nd of September], a very great number of the most valiant 
nobles and also of the people of Genoa bestirred themselves 
manfully by sea and land, to burn the ships of the Pisan cor- 
sairs and to assail them, to the end that they might avenge with 
the sword so enormous a dishonour and deliver the aforesaid 
nobles who were held captive... 3 . 

" Wherefore, the [Imperial] Seneschal [Markwald of An- 

1 We have no information concerning the cause of Margaritus' inactivity. 
See Manfroni, op. cit. p. 294. 

2 "in palation quod fuit Margarit." This palace had been given to the 
Genoese by Roger II, in 11 17. 

3 In this place the original manuscript has been erased, and the following 
sentence inserted in another hand: "et insuper insurgentes Ianuenses super 
Pisanos, tredecim de galeis ipsorum ceperunt et retinuerunt, et maxima pars 
Pisanorum in galeis ipsis existencium ipsa die in acie gladii mortui fuerunt, 



1 1 9 4] PISA AND EMPEROR HENRY VI 225 

weiler] strove for divers days to make peace between the Pisans 
and the Genoese ; and after that the aforesaid captives had been 
set at liberty with the good- will of the Pisans, he caused both 
the Pisans and Genoese to swear that they would return all 
that they had taken; and when oaths had been exchanged be- 
tween them, the Genoese restored to the Pisans a thousand 
marks of silver and the whole of their galleys. But the Pisans, 
whom not without good reason the Genoese lightly esteem, re- 
stored these things to wit: one shield, one boiler for melting 
pitch, ten bundles of flax, and one small basket with a little 
cinnamon and a root of galangal. And they retained for them- 
selves, in despite of their oaths, corselets and ships' tackle be- 
yond all counting, silken raiment, ornaments, silver goblets and 
gold, and other riches innumerable. Moreover, such of the 
Genoese as they found in the city they despoiled in full view of 
the Genoese fleet, and sent them back to their fellows, naked 
and robbed and beaten. Meanwhile, it befel that the Pisans 
with their ships and corsairs from Porto Bonifacio, caring 
nothing for their oaths nor for the guarantees that they had 
given, pursued and captured before the eyes of the Genoese a 
very richly laden merchantman of Genoa, which was voyaging 
from Ceuta to Alexandria. Neither was there any who dared 
to say them nay, nor to defend that merchantman, by reason 
of the fear which they had of the aforesaid corsairs who bade 
them bear all these things peaceably for the love of the lord 
Emperor, lest perchance they should hinder his business. What 
more ? So great and so many were the shames and injuries that 
scarcely would it be possible to tell them all. Whereby it came 
to pass that that valorous and worshipful man, Oberto di Ole- 
vano, potesta of Genoa, sickened and fell ill of a fever by reason 
of his perplexity and grief at so great infamies. And, as God 
willed it, he died thereof 1 ." 

Of these events we have no contemporary Pisan record. The 
chronicle of Marangone ends with the year 1175, and the Brevi- 

et in Fario Mesine, ubi nulla est redemptio, cum loricis et armis submersi," 
— in substance, a mere repetition of what the annalist has already told us at 
the beginning of the paragraph. 

1 Otoboni Scribae Annates Ianuenses, pp. 48-50. 



226 PISA AND EMPEROR HENRY VI [ch. xvii 

arium contains nothing at all between 1 187 and 1 199. Obviously, 
however, on the admissions of their own annalist, the Genoese 
had, in the end, much the worst of the conflict, and they would 
seem to have lost their colony in Messina. Such a result was 
probably due to the more or less open connivance of Markwald 
of Anweiler who naturally favoured the Pisans with their long 
tradition of Imperial service 1 . Ottobono's story of a Pisan plot 
to assassinate the Seneschal and of Pisan intrigues with Sibilla, 
the widow of Tancred, seems to be quite unworthy of credit. 
That the Pisans took no further part in the conquest of Sicily 
is no sufficient evidence of any change of policy on their part, 
nor of any lack of loyalty to the Emperor. After the Battle of 
Messina co-operation with the Genoese was no longer possible ; 
and if the Pisans were prepared to return home with the booty 
they had gained, Henry was probably quite ready to let them 
go. The inactivity of Margaritus had rendered a large fleet un- 
necessary; and, in the circumstances, the Emperor may well 
have preferred the help of the Genoese. He would have felt it 
impolitic to break his promises to the Pisans. He still had need 
of them in Tuscany. The Genoese he could betray with im- 
punity; and betray them he did, without scruple and without 
remorse. When their work was done and he had assumed the 
royal crown of Sicily in the cathedral of Palermo, so far from 
investing them with the fiefs he had promised, he scoffed at 
their pretensions, declaring that, now that their potesta was 
dead, there was none among them whom he could recognize as 
representing the Commune ; he deprived them of all the rights 
and privileges they had enjoyed under the Norman kings; he 
expelled their merchants from the island, and even threatened 
the destruction of Genoa itself. In his bitter disappointment 
Ottobono borrows the phraseology of the prophet Jeremiah: 
"Behold, all men," he cries, "behold, therefore, and consider 
whether there be any sorrow like unto this sorrow, and whether 
from the beginning of time such like things were ever done by 
any vilest pagan or tyrant 2 ." 

1 Compare Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad ann. 1194. 

2 Otoboni Scribae Annates lanuenses, pp. 51-53. 



1 197] PISA AND EMPEROR HENRY VI 227 

The delight of the Pisans was, of course, proportionate to the 
indignation of the Genoese; and, even if their dream of virtual 
copartnership with the Empire in the newly acquired territories 
was not fulfilled, it is (pace Professor Manfroni 1 ) by no means 
improbable that they acquired something approaching commer- 
cial hegemony in the kingdom of Sicily. Pisan tradition points 
in that direction 2 ; and it is certain that the friendly relations 
which existed between the Republic and the Emperor remained 
unimpaired. Enough to prove it is the selection of the Pisan 
Raniero Gaetani to carry out the Imperial policy in Florence 3 . 
Nevertheless, the favours which Henry showered upon his faithful 
lieges turned at the last to their disadvantage. To benefit them 
he had deprived the Bishop of Volterra of the right of coining 
money 4 , and had brusquely ordered the reluctant Florentines 
to aid them in acquiring complete possession of their contado 5 . 
By the diploma of 1191 he had, as we have seen, definitely ex- 
cluded the Lucchesi, now closely leagued with Florence, from 
any possibility of access to the sea- coast ; and when he died, on 
the 28th of September, 1197, the Pisans were cordially hated 
by almost all their neighbours. In the same year they were 
once more involved in war with Venice 6 ; they had been at war 
with Genoa since the Battle of Messina 7 . 

1 Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 294-296. He apparently accepts the Annales 
Ianuenses for gospel, and, after recounting how the Emperor repudiated his 
promises to the Genoese, concludes as follows: "Quanto ai Pisani, e inutile 
dire che dopo il tentativo di Messina furono considerati quasi come nemici, 
checche ne dica inventando il Roncioni." That, I confess, appears to me a 
gratuitous assumption and hard to reconcile with subsequent events. 

2 See Dal Borgo, Dissertazioni sopra V Istoria Pisana, op. cit. T. 1, P. 1, 
p. 166. 

3 P. 214 supra. 

4 Volpe, op. cit. p. 311 ; Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. p. 172. 

5 Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. pp. 172, 173. 

6 Martin da Canal, La Cronique des Veniciens, pte 1, § 55, in Arch. Stor. It. 
viii, 338. 

7 Manfroni, op. cit. p. 299 et seq. 



15—2 



CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH 
"THE GREAT REFUSAL" 

1 he death of Henry VI led first to the abandonment and then 
to the total ruin of the Imperial system which he and his father 
had so persistently striven to establish in Central Italy. No 
sooner did the news of his decease reach Tuscany than the 
Samminiatesi destroyed the German fortress which had given 
to their town its title of al Tedesco 1 ; and, in Borgo S. Genesio, 
the Roncaglia of Tuscany, where feudatories and Consuls had 
been wont to do homage to the Emperor and to his Legates, 
the representatives of the greater part of the Tuscan cities as- 
sembled to organize a Guelf League, after the pattern of the 
Lombard League, for the vindication of their rights and liberties. 
On the nth of November, 1197, in the Church of S. Cristoforo, 
in the presence of two Cardinal Legates "et eorum parabola et 
mandato," the Bishop of Volterra, as seignior of his city, and the 
Consuls and rectors of Florence, Lucca, Siena, Prato, and 
S. Miniato, made oath to maintain it 2 . /iM^ 

The terms of this alliance, its character and' its - scope, have 
been so often and fully discussed that it is/necessary to deal 
with them in this place 3 . Suffice it to say that the main object 
of the confederated cities was to take advantage of the Emperor's 
decease to secure complete possession of their respective terri- 
tories ; and to this end it was necessary that Tuscany should be 
united. Unfortunately, however, Florence was permitted to 
take the lead, and Florence was, as usual, acting with cynical 
egoism. Subsequent events leave no doubt as to her true aims. 

1 Villari, I primi due secoli, etc., op. cit. I, 142. 

2 Santini, Documenti, op. cit. 1, xxi, 33. Compare Villari, op. cit. 1, 143, 
n. 2, and Lisini, R. Arch, di Stato in Siena, Inventario delle pergamene con- 
servate nel diplomatico (Siena, Lazzeri, 1908), pte 1, p. 117. 

3 See, for example, Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. pp. 179 et seq. 



1197-98] "THE GREAT REFUSAL" 229 

She promoted the League "in order that all Tuscany might 
aid her to regain speedy possession of her contado 1 "; and, 
when that end was accomplished, she shamelessly violated her 
reciprocal obligations. The success of her designs depended 
almost entirely on the attitude adopted by Siena ; and the most 
elementary prudence should have prevented the Sienese from 
having anything to do with the League. They must have known 
that the first object of the Florentines was the destruction of 
Semifonte, a strong castle of the Alberti, situated on the hili 
of Petrognano, some five or six miles to the north of Poggibonsi. 
Beneath its walls a considerable town had grown up ; its popu- 
lation was increasing rapidly and already dreamed of rivalry 
with Florence 2 . Semifonte bid fair to become a great Imperial 
stronghold in the centre of Tuscany ; allied with Siena, no force 
the Florentines could bring against it could hope to subdue it; 
and, in friendly hands, it must have proved an almost insuper- 
able obstacle to any invasion of Sienese territory by way of the 
Val d' Elsa. Nevertheless, Siena, as we have seen, adhered to 
the League; on the 2nd of December Arezzo followed her 
example, and in February the Guidi and the Alberti, finding 
themselves too weak to stand alone, reluctantly took the oaths, 
lest worse should befall them. By the terms of the League, 
they could only enter it as the dependants of Florence 3 ; and 
their adherence therefore amounted to a virtual acknowledgment 
of the suzerainty of that Commune. The Florentines, moreover, 
expressly reserved the right to attack Semifonte and to compel 
the submission of Certaldo and Mangona, fiefs of the Alberti 4 . 
Meanwhile, Pisa and Pistoia stood aloof, indifferent to en- 
treaties and to menaces. The League could offer them nothing 

1 Villari, op. cit. I, 144. 

2 The following rhyme was current in the contado: 

Firenze, fatti in la 

Che Semifonte si fa citta. 

3 " Item non recipiemus ad hanc societatem vel securitatem aliquod cas- 
trum vel personam quod vel que sit de episcopatu vel comitatu vel districtu 
alicuius civitatis vel episcopi seu comitis, sine parabola consilium vel rectorum 
illius civitatis vel episcopi seu comitis vel castri, de cuius comitatu vel dis- 
trictu vel episcopatu esset." 

4 Santini, Documenti, op. cit. p. 38, and Studi, etc., op. cit. pp. 187-191. 



230 "THE GREAT REFUSAL" [ch.xviii 

which they did not possess already ; unlike the other Communes, 
they had never been deprived of their contadi; and, but for the 
fatuous conduct of Siena, their refusal to join the confederated 
cities would have been an act of sound statesmanship. In the 
actual circumstances, they simply cut themselves off from the 
comity of Tuscan nations, and permitted Florence to arrogate 
to herself the direction of the League. The abstention of Pisa 
at this juncture has been characterized by Professor Volpe as 
" il gran rifiuto." Yet, it is difficult to perceive what other course 
she could have pursued with honour. The League was directed 
against the Empire, and under the Empire Pisa had won pros- 
perity and freedom. To have thrown in her lot with the con- 
federated cities would have been a deliberate abandonment of 
her political principles, an act of rebellion against her suzerain, 
a violation of her oath of fealty. Even Siena only consented to 
join the allies on condition that the Pope should absolve her 
"de fidelitate quam fecerat fllio olim imperatoris 1 ." Moreover, 
at this time, Pisa was once more governed by a Count of the 
house of Gherardesca — probably the same Tedecio Gherardesca 
who had held office between 1190 and 11 92 s — and for such an 
one a confederation whose forces were about to be used for the 
humiliation and subjection of the feudatories can have been 
nothing but anathema. How could Pisa act in unison with the 
Bishop of Volterra, exasperated against her by the curtailment 
of his contado and the deprivation of the right of minting money ; 
with Lucca, still coveting the possession of the Val d' Era ; with 
Florence, closely allied with Lucca, and manifestly aspiring to 
supremacy in Tuscany ? 

Too late the Sienese were taught by bitter experience what 
had been the real object of the League. Hardly was the destruc- 
tion of Semifonte accomplished than the Florentines turned up- 
on them; and, on the 4th of June, 1203 3 , the iniquitous arbitra- 
ment of Ogerio not only deprived them of all that portion of 

1 Santini, Documenti, op. cit. p. 37. 

2 Arch, di Stato in Pisa, Atti Pubbl. 22 e 27 sett. 1197 : " Comes Tedicius 
Pisanorum noviter electus potestas," cited by Volpe, p. 321 n. 

3 Santini, Documenti, op. cit. 1, pp. 124-127, doc. xlviii. 



1203] "THE GREAT REFUSAL" 231 

their contado over which their rights were fairly disputable, but 
also of much which was undoubtedly theirs. They were forced 
to relinquish their possessions in Poggibonsi, to forsake the lord 
of Tornano, their ally, and to see their northern frontiers pushed 
back to within a few miles of the walls of Siena 1 . In scorn of 
their folly, the enemy who had overreached them labelled them 
for all time with the opprobrious nickname of Beset or Bescio- 
lini 2 . 

Such was the interpretation which the Florentines put upon 
the oath which they had sworn on the holy gospels of God to 
preserve firm peace and concord all the days of their lives be- 
tween the members of the Tuscan League 3 . They had scarcely 
"more excuse for attacking Siena, in 1202, than the Austrians 
had for attacking Serbia in 19 14. Indeed, the German ethics 
of to-day are strangely reminiscent of the ethics of Florence 
from the twelfth century to the sixteenth, when, at last, Tus- 
cany was mercifully delivered from her tyranny by the Grand 
Duke Cosimo de' Medici. To protect their new and straitened 
frontiers, the Sienese contructed the strong fortresses of Monte- 
reggioni and Querciagrossa ; but their loyal observance of the 
arbitrament of Ogerio did nothing to avert the malignant hatred 
of their unscrupulous enemy. For over half a century Siena 
was subjected to the unprovoked and brutal bludgeonings of 
Florence. In vain, too late, she leagued herself with Pisa. 
Florence had become too strong for them both. It is true that, 
during the comparatively peaceful years which followed the 
disastrous war of 1207 and 1208 4 , the Sienese obtained a short 
breathing space; but the Florentines were not idle, and no 
sooner had they consolidated their authority over their contado 

1 Villari, op. cit. I, 148-150; Langton Douglas, A History of Siena, pp. 57- 
59. See also Santini, Studi, etc., op. cit. carta in. 

2 See O. Porri, Miscellanea Storica Sanese (Siena, 1844), p. 13 n., and 
Manuzzi, Vocabolario, s.v. 

3 " Nos iuramus supra dei sancta evangelia abhinc in antea toto tempore 
vite nostre firmam pacem et concordiam inter omnes personas huius societatis 
tenere, etc." 

4 Rondoni, Sena Vetus, op. cit. p. 43; Santini, Documenti, cited, pp. 150- 
174; Sanzanome, edition cited, pp. 139, 140; Villani, v, 33, 34; L. Douglas, 
op. cit. pp. 59, 60. 



232 "THE GREAT REFUSAL" [ch. 

than they initiated a policy of peaceful penetration which was 
hardly less dangerous than open hostilities. By the tireless 
energy of their merchants, they conquered the markets of Vol- 
terra, Colle, S. Gimignano, Pistoia, Prato and S. Miniato; the 
coinage of Pisa was gradually superseded by the coinage of 
Florence ; judicious loans of money afforded specious pretexts 
for subsequent interventions, and a vast net was woven in the 
fine meshes of which the other nations of Tuscany were in- 
sidiously trammelled 1 . 

Meanwhile, the energies of the Pisans were devoted to the 
war with Genoa 2 , to the invasion of Sicily, in which they as- 
sisted the Emperor Otho IV with a fleet of forty galleys 3 , and 
above all to the definite establishment of their overlordship in 
Sardinia. It was in those days that the strong fortress of Castel 
di Castro was constructed to dominate the city of Cagliari, and 
became the bulwark and centre of Pisan authority in the island 4 . 
Only after peace had been made with Genoa, in 1217 5 , were 
the Pisans at last able to turn their attention to the doings of 
Florence. There had as yet been no open quarrel. So late as 
1 2 14, a commercial treaty had been entered into between the 
Communes, eliminating the right of reprisals {rappresaglie), 
and relieving the merchants of both cities from the danger of 
arbitrary arrest or seizure of goods for debts for which they were 
neither sureties nor guarantors 6 ; on the very eve of the final 

1 Volpe, op. cit. p. 355, and see G. Arias, 1 trattati commerciali della Re- 
pubblica Fiorentina (Firenze, Le Monnier, 1901), vol. 1, pte 1, cap. vi. 

2 There is no period of Pisan history concerning which the Pisan sources 
are so meagre as the first two decades of the thirteenth century. We are 
principally dependent on the Genoese annalist Ogerio Pane for the details 
of this war. See the Annali Genovesi (edition cited), vol. 11, and compare 
Manfroni, op. cit. p. 360 et seq. 

3 Muratori, Annali d' Italia, ad arm. 121 1 ; Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 363, 364. 

4 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 345-353, and more fully in Besta, op. cit. vol. 1, 
caps, x, xi. 

5 Roncioni, ubi cit. pp. 478-481 ; Ogerii Panis Annates lanuenses, pp. 142, 

143. 

6 Santini, Documenti, etc., op. cit. pte 1, docs, lxi, lxii, pp. 175-179. 
The right of reprisals {withernam) also existed in England. See Lipson, An 
Introduction to the Economic History of England (London, 1913), in the 
Index, s.v. ; and, as to Italian reprisals, the classical work of Del Vecchio and 
Casanova, Le Rappresaglie nei Comuni Medievali (Bologna, Zanichelli, 1894). 



xviii] "THE GREAT REFUSAL" 233 

rupture we find a Pisan, Ugo Grotti, acting as potesta in Flor- 
ence 1 . Yet causes of friction were manifold; and as, day by 
day, the Pisans found themselves increasingly cramped and 
isolated by the expansion of the Florentine contado, and as the 
need of the Florentines for the communication with the sea 
became more and more imperative, it must have been suffi- 
ciently manifest that the apparently cordial relations which ex- 
isted between the two cities rested upon very insecure founda- 
tions 2 . If there be any truth in Giovanni Villani's story of the 
lapdog, it proves conclusively how great was the tension of 
men's minds, when so slight an occasion could produce such 
serious consequences 3 . 

On the 22nd of November, 1220, Frederick II was crowned 
in Rome and the following year saw the Ghibellines of Tuscany 
drawing together. On the 2nd of October, through the influence 
of the Imperial Vicar, Conrad, Bishop of Spires, the Sienese 
entered into a league with the Aldobrandeschi 4 ; and, in the 
same month, their ancient "societas" with Orvieto was re- 
newed for a further term of twenty years 5 . Having annulled the 
cessions of Count Guido and the Sienese, Frederick confirmed 
the right of the Marturensi to elect their own Consuls and 
granted them full jurisdiction over the town and district of 
Poggibonsi. The Sienese were encouraged to ally themselves 
with the new Commune, and in September, 1221, they swore 
perpetual amity with the Marturensi 6 . Poggibonsi, "the navel 
of Tuscany," was to become an imperial stronghold like S. 
Miniato al Tedesco, a bulwark of the Sienese state against 
Florentine aggression, serving as Semifonte might have served 
had the Sienese been wiser. Meanwhile. Pisa had definitely 

1 G. Villani, Cronica, v. 42. 

2 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 355-357- 

3 G. Villani, Cronica, vi, 2. His comment that "si pu6 dire che fosse 
diavolo in ispezie di catellino, perche tanto male ne seguitd," would appear 
to impute a good deal of unnecessary painstaking to his Satanic majesty. 

* R. Arch, di Stato in Siena, Caleffo Vecchio, c. I22 t -i26, 1221. See also 
Hutton, In Unknozvn Tuscany, op. cit. pp. 147, 148, and note on p. 233. 

6 Fumi, Codice diplomatico, etc., op. cit. p. 93, doc. cxlii. 

6 Rondoni, Sena Vetus, op. cit. pp. 41, 42, and authorities there cited. See 
also Lisini, Inventario delle pergamene conservate nel diplomatico (Siena, 
Lazzeri, 1908), p. 169. 



234 "THE GREAT REFUSAL" [ch.xviii 

broken with Florence, and all the Florentine merchandise in 
the city had been confiscated 1 . A year later, the Aretines also 
joined the Ghibelline league, promising that, so soon as their 
existing treaty with Florence should have expired, they would, 
instead of renewing it, enter into a formal alliance with the 
Sienese and assist them and Poggibonsi against the common 
enemy 2 . 

The confederation was a formidable one; but Florence was 
already too powerful for them all. On the 21st of July, 1222, 
the Pisans were broken at Monteorecio or, as some say, at 
Castel del Bosco 3 , before they could join forces with their allies; 
and from thenceforward the animosity between the rival cities 
increased with every decade. Pisa no longer fought for su- 
premacy but for existence. The hegemony of Tuscany had 
passed from her, and the hegemony of the Tyrrhenian Sea was 
passing with it. The Tuscan League stands as a milestone 
marking the point at which her decline began. 

1 G. Villani, Cronica, vi, 2. 

2 R. Arch, di Stato in Siena, Riformagioni, Perg. 3 sett. 1222; Tommasi, 
Historie di Siena, lib. iv, pp. 213, 214. 

3 The chroniclers are not in agreement as to the precise place where the 
battle was fought. See G. Villani, Cronica, vi, 3 ; Sanzanome (edition cited), 
pp. 144, 145; Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, xv, 22, 23, and Volpe, op. cit. 
P- 363- 



CHAPTER THE NINETEENTH 

PISA UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF 
THE CONSULS 

As we have already seen, the Commune was in its inception 
simply a private association; and a private association it long 
remained : tolerated by the Marquises of Tuscany and by the 
Bishops of Pisa, but, until its existence had been formally 
recognized by the Empire, undoubtedly illegal 1 . The armatori 
and merchant adventurers who formed its constituent parts 
were rather an aristocracy than an oligarchy; and they were 
able to maintain and extend their authority because they were, 
in fact, not merely the best but also the only possible inter- 
preters of the aspirations and ambitions of their fellow-citizens. 
There were, no doubt, craftsmen in Pisa long before the birth 
of the Commune ; the fact that Pisa was the seat of a bishopric 
would alone have sufficed to produce a certain amount of trade ; 
for in the Middle Ages churches and monasteries contributed 
greatly to the development of town life. If we look no further 
afield than our own country, we shall recall the ten traders who 
dwelt "in front of the door of the church' ' at Abingdon, and 
the "bakers, ale-brewers, tailors, washerwomen, shoemakers, 
robe-makers, cooks, porters and agents," who "waited daily upon 
the Saint and the Abbot and the Friars " at Bury St Edmunds 2 . 
In the document which contains the first undisputed record of 
Consuls in Pisa we have also record of Fabric who seem to have 
been employed in work upon the cathedral 3 , and appealed 
"humillimis supplicationibus " to Archbishop Daibert for pro- 

1 When Frederick Barbarossa prohibited " conventicolas omnes et con- 
iurationes in civitatibus et extra, etiam occasione parentele, et inter civitatem 
et civitatem, et inter personam et personam," he was simply declaring and 
re-enacting what had been the law ever since the time of the Longobards. 
See Solmi, he Associazioni in Italia avanti le origini del Comune, op. cit. 

2 Lipson, An Introduction to the Economic History of England (London, 
1913), p. 168; Domesday Book, 1, 586; 11, 372. 

3 Villari, I primi due secoli, etc., op. cit. 1, 88. 



236 PISA UNDER THE GOVERNMENT [ch. 

tection 1 . Yet the fact remains that practically the whole of the 
trade and commerce of the city was in the hands of the associated 
families ; they were far the largest employers of labour, and but 
for their energy and enterprise the greater proportion of the 
inhabitants would have lost the means of livelihood. To the 
mediaeval peasant or retainer or burgher, the existence of a 
governing class seemed natural and righteous. "It was tacitly 
agreed that chieftainship was a trade and that those who were 
brought up to this trade were on the average the best rulers." 
The mass of the citizens no more expected to be consulted with 
regard to the government of the Commune than they expected 
to be consulted with regard to the commercial or maritime 
undertakings of the individual merchants and armatori whom 
they served. For the greater part of the twelfth century there 
was no separation of interests between the rulers and the ruled. 
The associates were as free to frame their own laws and to 
choose their own officials as if the Commune had been nothing 
more than a private partnership. 

When, however, they first bound themselves together in 
oath-fellowship, there were other laws than their own to which 
they owed obedience. If we ignore for the moment the official 
character of the Visconte, and his rapid loss of power practically 
justifies us in so doing 2 , the Pisan state consisted of the bishop 
and of those who had sworn fealty to him, its territory of their 
fiefs, and, of course, of the domain of the bishop. The majority, 
if not all, of the associates were his vassals 3 , and as such they 
formed his curia. Thus, the Commune inherited from the 
feudal period certain magistracies and customs which, for the 
most part, no one ever thought of abolishing. From time to 
time, as need arose, fresh institutions and fresh magistracies 
were added to the old ones, but without any preconceived plan, 
almost one might say by chance, and merely as temporary ex- 
pedients. Only after a long series of years did that which in its 
origin had been provisionary harden into permanency. Even 
the consulship, the first and only source of communal authority, 

1 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, in, 890, 891. Compare p. 10 supra. 

2 P. 11 supra. 3 P. 46 supra. 



xix] OF THE CONSULS 237 

the primal organism which included within itself all the other 
social elements, as yet amorphous and embryonic, was in its 
inception nothing more than a temporary commission or balia, 
appointed for the performance of some particular piece of busi- 
ness (e.g. to command a naval expedition 1 ). Individual asso- 
ciates continued, almost as a matter of course, to assume func- 
tions which, in a less loosely organized body politic, could only 
have been performed by the State, and the actions of the State 
were often the actions of private citizens carried out on their own 
initiative and responsibility. Owners of ships had the right to 
punish their crews; armatori fought at sea and in Sardinia to 
serve their personal ends, albeit, in the eyes of the Genoese and 
of the Judges, they doubtless represented the Commune. Pri- 
vate wars were waged and private treaties entered into. Even 
the fleets which took part in the Crusades, and went to the aid 
of the Emperors in Southern Italy, were in the main equipped 
and manned by private enterprise 2 . The ideal unity of the Com- 
mune was not expressed in any magistracy, but in the Cathedral, 
in the Baptistry and in the Campanile. In Pisa as elsewhere, 
the mother church of the city was the "home, the fortress, the 
first palace of the people 3 ," the symbol alike of spiritual hope 
and civic glory. There was celebrated the daily sacrifice of the 
Mass ; there were brought the spoils of victory to be presented 
to the Queen of Heaven 4 ; there the wars and conquests of the 
Commune were inscribed on deathless marble ; there the Con- 
suls gave ear to the complaints of the people 5 ; and there, on the 
Vigil of the Assumption, offerings of wax candles were, perhaps, 
already beginning to be made by all the subject towns and vil- 
lages of the contado in sign of vassalage 6 . 

1 P. 9 supra. 2 Volpe, op. cit. p. 123. 

3 Tamftiaiia, Vita di popolo nei Secoli XIII e XIV, in Arte, Scienza e Fede 
ai giorni di Dante (Milano, Hoepli, 1902), p. 36: "...la chiesa fu e rimane 
sempre la casa, la fortezza, il primo palazzo del popolo." Compare my 
A History of Perugia, pp. 379-381, and Volpe, op. cit. pp. 125, 126. 

4 Pp. 24, 29, 43 supra. 

5 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, vol. I {Breve Consulum, 1164), p. 24: "Reclama- 
tiones omnes quae in die dominico mihi, vel alicui de meis sociis, in ecclesia 
Sanctae Mariac.nent, etc." 

6 See P. Vigo, Unafesta popolare a Pisa net Medio Evo (Pisa, Tip. Mariotti, 
and compare my Palio and Ponte, op. cit. pp. 12-15. 



238 PISA UNDER THE GOVERNMENT [ch. 

Later on, as new needs and new and ever increasingly com- 
plex problems presented themselves, the consequent develop- 
ment of the political constitution, both administrative and ju- 
diciary, necessitated the substitution of a lex scripta for the old 
customary law. Here, too, however, the same haphazard methods 
were followed. The various attributes, duties and rights of in- 
dividual magistrates were reduced to writing without any defi- 
nite or general plan and merely under the pressure of immediate 
necessity. The result was the appearance of the so-called Brevi 
(Lat. Br evict). These, as their name implies, contained a brief 
summary of the duties which, upon taking office, the various 
magistrates swore to perform. At first, they were simply oaths 
of office, but were gradually swollen by additions until they 
developed into actual statutes. The different stages of this evo- 
lution are clearly visible in the Breve Pisani Communis of 1286, 
where, side by side with enactments pure and simple, we find 
rubrics which still continue to run in the form of an oath, while, 
in not a few instances, the enactment and the oath co-exist in 
the same rubric (e.g. lib. 1, rubr. 182). All the organs of the Com- 
mune, whether administrative or judicial, and, indeed, we may 
almost say the whole population, participated in the formation 
of the law. The daily routine of communal business enabled 
the individual citizen to perceive where and how the existing 
statutes were defective 1 ; and, when the sense of the community 
was in favour of a change, the General Council, or the Emenda- 
tori, gave concrete form to the popular desire and embodied it 
in a new rubric 2 . Often, too, public opinion, before becoming 
law, was voiced in the form of an ordinance (ordincmento) com- 

1 Compare L. Zdekauer, La vita pubblica net Dugento, op. cit. p. 72, and 
S. Bongi, Bandi Lucchesi del Secolo Decimoquarto (Bologna, 1863), Bando 6o, 
p. 37, and note on pp. 299, 300. 

2 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, vol. 1 (Br. Consulum, 1164), p. 31: "Constituta 
facta tarn de usibus quam de legibus, firma tenebo, excepto quod sub Sacra- 
mento a tribus legis prudentibus additum vel diminutum fuerit, etc." It 
was the duty of the Emendatori to revise the statutes which were continually 
augmented by fresh accretions and to co-ordinate the new material, distributing 
the laws decreed by the Council in the divisions appropriate to their subject- 
matter. It seems, moreover, that this balia could initiate legislation motu 
proprio. Compare L. Zdekauer, II Constituto del C. di Siena dell' anno 1262 
(Milano, Hoepli, 1897), Dissertazione, pte 1, § 6, pp. xviii, xix. 



xix] OF THE CONSULS 239 

piled or accepted by some Balia as a provisionary measure, 
which, later on, was promoted to the dignity of a statute by the 
sanction of the Council. Each Breve comprised a definite field 
of law, but not infrequently individual Brevi exchanged par- 
ticular provisions, so that one was increased and fattened on 
matter drawn from the other 1 ; while all of them served to pro- 
vide material and aliment for the great central Breve Consulum. 
Afterwards, when the Breve Consulum had been transformed 
into the Breve Pisani Communis, it finished by absorbing all the 
others 2 . At the period, however, with which we are at present 
concerned, that process of fusion had not even begun. In the 
opening years of the twelfth century, the Breve Consulum prob- 
ably stood alone. 

Sworn to by the Consuls on taking office, it was the first and 
most important of all the Brevi, representing, as it were, the ark 
of the covenant, wherein were preserved the political traditions 
of the city, the privileges of the Communes and of the head of 
the Pisan Church, handed down from generation to generation. 
Here were recorded the securitates quos fieri fecit episcopus 
Gerardus et archiepiscopus Daibertus, "capitoli perpetui," as the 
later statutes termed them 3 , withdrawn from the province of 
the Emendatori and increased, from time to time, by resolutions 
of the Councils and by the insertion of the fundamental clauses of 
political treaties with other cities 4 ; thus insuring to the govern- 
ment a practical continuity which the short term of office of the 
Consuls might otherwise have impaired. The Breve contained 
no enacting clauses but simply an epitome of the duties of the 
Consular College, couched in the form of a solemn declaration, 

1 For a curious example of this process, see Fumi, Codice diplomatico 
della Cittd d' Orvieto, op. cit. p. 731. 

2 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, vol. 1 (Breve pisani communis, lib. 1, rubr. 46), 
p. no: "Brevia aliqua vel statuta officiales pisane civitatis et districtus non 
patiemur neque permictemus habere, aut aliquibus brevibus vel statutis uti, 
nisi capitulis hujus Brevis, que servare teneamur." 

3 Volpe, op. cit. p. 126. Compare Zdekauer, // Constitute, etc., op. cit. 
Dissertazione, p. xix. 

4 Thus, in the Breve Consulum of n 64 we find record of the peace which 
had been entered into with Lucca six years earlier (15th Aug. 1 158), and of the 
convention with the cattani of Peccioli in 1162. Compare my A History of 
Perugia, pp. 32, 33. 



240 PISA UNDER THE GOVERNMENT [ch. 

written in the first person singular — "faciam," "observabo," 
"tractebo," "tenebo," etc. — and concluding with a form of 
oath, which, though it varied from time to time, was in sub- 
stance as follows: "In the name of the Lord, Amen. I, the 
Consul, swear on the holy Gospels of God to observe all the 
things herein set down, without fraud, regarding neither love 
nor hate, reward nor prayer, both I and my colleagues, all the 
time of my consulship." 

To the Breve Consulum corresponded the Breve Populi* a re- 
ciprocal oath, which served either to set the seal upon some 
weighty resolution taken in public par lamentum, as, for example, 
upon the sentence pronounced upon the Visconti, in 1153 1 , or 
constituted the accepted formula with which, when the Consuls 
took their oath of office, the associates swore to obey them and 
to bear the burdens of citizenship — "sacramentum consulum," 
"sacramentum consulatui 2 ." Taken in conjunction, these two 
oaths constituted an undertaking similar to that into which new 
citizens entered on being admitted " consortio civitatis 3 ." To the 
Breve Consulum the Consuls swore severally ; to the Breve Populi 
— a distinct and separate Breve, though identical in form and 
substance — the people swore all together, or one of them only 
in the name of the rest, "in communi parlamento, in anima 
populi," after he had received "parabolam" to do so 4 . This 
Breve Populi, which is mentioned in the treaty with Florence 
in 1 17 1 5 , appears to correspond to the Breve Compagne of 

1 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, I, 19: "Haec omnia firma tenere predicti con- 
sumes corporaliter in communi pretorio iuravere...recolimus populum in 
parlamentum jurasse suprascripta firma tenere, etc." 

2 In this connection Professor Volpe (op. cit. p. 127) quotes a document 
published by Olivieri, Serie dei Consoli, in Atti Soc. Lig. I, p. 272 : "...quando 
populus pisanus iuraverit obedire consulibus de comuni et publico negotio 
nostre civitatis, [nos consules pisani] faciemus predicta sacramenta unicuique 
eorum iurare, etc." Compare Bonaini, Statuti inediti, vol. 1 (Br. Consulum 
1 162), p. 9: "Eorum autem reclamationes qui sacramentum consulatui non 
fecerint, etc." 

3 Dal Borgo, Diplomi pisani, p. 186. 

4 Compare the treaty with Genoa of 1150, in Dal Borgo, Dipl. pisani, 
pp. 311-313, and the peace with the Cornetani of 1174, in Muratori, An- 
tiquitates, diss. 49. 

5 Santini, Documenti, etc., op. cit., p. 5. Compare Bonaini, Statuti inediti 
vol. 1 (Br. Consulum of 1164), p. 29: "...breve ad quod sequentes consules j» 
et populus, omnesque ofnciales sint iuraturi. . . ." 



xix] OF THE CONSULS 241 

Genoa ; the pact which bound the whole body of the members 
of the Commune to the sovereign power 1 . It was, of course, as 
different from the Breve Populi of the second half of the thir- 
teenth century as the populus of the Consular period was differ- 
ent from the populus which arose under the leadership of its 
Captain to oppose the Magnatt 2 . 

The Consuls regarded the Consulate not only as a right but 
as a duty. Their salaries were derisory, scarcely indemnifying 
them for the expenses of their office; but they owned no less 
nor lower fount of their authority than the Almighty Himself, 
and did not hesitate to proclaim themselves Consuls "by the 
grace of God 3 ." They lent money to the Commune 4 ; they fur- 
nished it with galleys, and with war-horses bred upon their 
private estates; in their double capacity of sea-captains and 
milites, they gathered around them vast numbers of dependants, 
both in their towers and in their ships ; they knew how to handle 
the oar, to build the siege-castle and to dig the moat, to lead in 
battle and to speak in the Arrengo. Many of them, no doubt, 
were quite illiterate 5 ; but, they were wise with the wisdom of 
practical experience, and, unsoftened by book-learning, their 
minds were apt for the honour and exercise of arms 6 . 

Much had they seen and known ; cities of men 
And manners, climates, councils, governments. 

Their pride and self-reliance were hallowed by the great deeds 
of their ancestors and by the possession by each consorzio of 
kinsmen of its own private church, for prayer in life and burial 
after death. Their unity was thus invested with an almost sacred 

1 Volpe, op. cit. p. 128. 

2 Compare Bonaini, Statuti inediti, vol. I, Proemio, p. xviii. 

3 Thus, in a document of 1 1 19 : " Ildebrandus, nunc Dei gratia Pisanorum 
consul"; in another of n 53: "Nos in excellenti pisanae urbis specula, dis- 
ponents domino, consules constituti"; and in a third of 1164: "nos, etc., 
Consul Dei gratia Pisanorum." See Volpe, op. cit. p. 136, n. 1. 

4 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, vol. 1 (Br. Consilium of 1164), pp. 34, 38. 

5 Ibid., p. 42 n. 

6 Compare Bacon, The Advancement of Learning (Clarendon Press Series, 
1873), p. 10, and Essays, lviii: " In the youth of a state, amies doe flourish; 
in the middle age of a state, learning : and then both of them together for a time ; 
in the declining age of a state, mechanicall arts and merchandize." 

H. 16 



242 PISA UNDER THE GOVERNMENT [ch. 

character, akin to that of the Greek <f>parpia, with its sacrifices 
and tombs in common. From their ranks issued nearly all the 
judges and jurisprudents, as well as many of the higher clergy 
of the city, the canons, and often the Archbishop. Theirs was 
a small and exclusive society, the evirarpihai of Pisa, disciplined, 
homogeneous and even uniform. In it the individual lost him- 
self. There is a lack of great political names in the twelfth cen- 
tury. Such names only begin to appear with the social upheaval 
which gave birth to the Lloyd Georges of the Middle Ages. 
The despots of the fifteenth century are a direct product of 
democracy: the negation of every class barrier and of every 
aristocratic tradition 1 . 

The Consuls elected their own successors as well as all the 
other officials, including even the Senators — "Consiliarii" 
" Consiliarii credentiae" " Senator es 2 " — and at first the Senate 
was a mere appendix of the Consulate, a consultative com- 
mittee, and nothing more. In process of time, however, its 
powers were enlarged and it became a permanent organ of the 
State with extensive powers of veto. By the middle of the 
twelfth century, the making of war 3 , the preparation of galleys, 
the enlistment of troops, the division of the city into quarters 4 , 
the appointment of ambassadors 5 , the defence of the port of 
Piombino 6 , etc., were matters on which the Senate was entitled 

1 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 129-13 1. 

2 Bonaini, Statuti inediti, vol. 1 {Br. Consilium of 1162), p. 4: "Eligam 
...quadraginta senatores." Later on the Senators were chosen by a balia of 
three appointed by the Consuls {Br. Consilium of 1164, p. 25) : "tres homines 
eligam ; eosque jurare faciam ut. . .eligant. . .viginti quattuor consiliatores, etc." 

3 "Non ero in consilio nee facto studiosus ut pisanus populus in gueram 
deveniat sine concordia senatorum...." {Stat, inediti, p. 10). 

4 " De coaequatione ac divisione civitatis in quattuor partes facienda, et 
de militibus usque ad trecentos faciendis, et de galeis et scelis inceptis com- 
plendis, et praeparandis omnibus armentis, et de custodia eorum, et de 
guardia maris cum duabus aut pluribus galeis... consilium... coadunatis sena- 
toribus, queram ; et quod mihi sub nomine sacramenti omnes aut maior pars 
eorum consilium dederit de praenominatis causis, sequar" {Statuti inediti, 

P- 3°)- 

5 " Missaticum neminem ultra Ianuam vel Civitavechiam in aliam pro- 

vinciam mittam, nisi coram senatoribus...juret commissam sibi legationem, 
[vel] quae commictetur, sine fraude et fideliter portaturum" {Statuti inediti, 

P-7). 

6 Statuti inediti, 1, 39. 



xix] OF THE CONSULS 243 

to be heard. Moreover, its existence must have often proved 
a safeguard to the rights of private individuals. Thus, for ex- 
ample, "save with the advice of all the Senators or of the ma- 
jority of them, given upon oath," the Consuls were unable to 
decree the construction of new roads to the detriment of private 
property 1 , or, except in cases where their jurisdiction was volun- 
tarily accepted by the parties to the dispute, to give judgment 
against a Pisan citizen in a civil suit for a larger sum than a 
hundred solidi 2 . Nevertheless, the increased power of the 
Senate did nothing to weaken the authority of the Consular 
College. Rather did it reinforce and strengthen it; and, so far 
as the mass of the citizens were concerned, the Commune re- 
mained what it had been from the first : a narrow and exclusive 
private association. It is true that the associates in the aggre- 
gate had been formally recognized by the Empire, and that, as 
a result of that recognition, the Commune had become, in the 
eye of the law, a corporate feudatory, une seigneurie collective 
populaire; but its fundamental character was unchanged. The 
people were, no doubt, summoned from time to time to attend 
the parlamentum of the city, "aput maiorem ecclesiam," where 
the Consuls stood ready to hear their complaints 3 ; but it is not 
likely that they were permitted to take any effective part in the 
proceedings. Like the people in the ancient Greek 'Ayopd, they 
were merely called together to hear what had been decided by 
their rulers and to express their feelings as a body. 

Meanwhile, however, other lesser associations were grow- 
ing up within the great central association of the Commune; 
and already, in the third quarter of the twelfth century, an 
attempt was made to suppress them. "Compagnias civium et 
villanorum, quas contra communem honorem factas cognovero 
destruam," swore the Consuls in 1162 4 , and, two years later, 
they included "compagnias magistrorum lapidum seu tegu- 
larum" in the same condemnation 5 . Mediaeval groups were 
in their nature exclusive; they absorbed all the life and all the 
energies, economic, religious, political, of those who formed 

1 Statuti inediti, I, 13. 2 Ibid. I, 13, 37. 3 Ibid. 1, 24. 

4 Ibid. 1, 39. 5 Ibid. 1, 36. 

16 — 2 



244 PISA UNDER THE GOVERNMENT [ch. 

them, and they hardly ever coalesced 1 . Not without good 
reason did Hobbes include among the things which weaken or 
tend to the dissolution of a Commonwealth "the great number 
of corporations which are as it were many lesser commonwealths 
in the bowels of a greater, like worms in the entrails of a natural 
man 2 ." In the twelfth century, when the other groups were 
non-existent or weak, the Commune was strong. After the rise 
of the Arti, in the thirteenth century, a life and death struggle 
ensued between the Commune and the lesser communes — the 
sources recognize the Arti as communes 3 — and before their 
onslaught the old communal institutions fell to pieces. That 
day was as yet far off; but, even during the consular period, we 
may perceive the first blind gropings of the populus towards 
political recognition. 

There were, as we have seen, craftsmen in Pisa at a very 
early date; the Cathedral, the work of many generations of 
artificers, had been founded over a quarter of a century before 
we have any certain notice of the existence of Consuls 4 ; and 
other churches were rising in divers parts of the city: S, Paolo 
a Ripa d' Arno, S. Michele in Borgo, S. Frediano, S. Sepolcro, 
S. Piero in Vinculis, and, later on, the Baptistery and the Cam- 
panile. Even if we had no documentary evidence, we should 
know that there must have been fabri in Pisa, for the term is 
obviously a generic one, including many kinds of industries 
constructive and mechanical. I have already spoken of their 
appeal to Archbishop Daibert ; and the diploma of Daibert was 
confirmed by Rogerio, in 1128, in almost identical terms 5 . 
There is, however, no reason to suppose that the fabri were as 
yet organized as an Arte. At the dawn of the communal era 
artisans and mechanics were still in a condition of semi-servi- 
tude 6 ; and the "murorum magistri capitanei" of the statute 7 

1 The Monti of Siena are a marked example of this fact. See my Historical 
Introduction to L. Olcott's Guide to Siena (Siena, Torrini, 1903). 

2 Leviathan, pt II, chap. 29, 

3 Statuti inediti, III, 42 (Br. Consulum, Curiae Mercatorum, 1305, rubr. 
65): "Et iuro quod cuilibet communi et universitati quorumlibet merca- 
torum seu artificum...dabo vel dare faciam Breve sue mercationis...." 

4 See pp. 9, 29 supra. 5 Statuti inediti, III, 890-892. 

6 Volpe, op. cit. p. 246 n. 7 Statuti inediti, 1 (Br. Consulum, 1162), p. 11. 



PLATE XV 




PLATE XVI 




FACADE OF THE CHURCH OF S. MICHELE 



xix] OF THE CONSULS 245 

were probably chosen by the Consuls of the Commune, and 
not by the craftsmen. Only in the thirteenth century do we 
meet with "consules artis fabrorum 1 ." 

As early as 1138 we have notice of apothecaries (spetiarii), 
who carried on their business in Borgo S. Paolo in Cinzica, and, 
though still in a state of quasi-feudal subjection, were united 
by common interests and common liabilities 2 . The Levant fur- 
nished them with all manner of spices : cinnamon and pepper 
and incense and cassia and ginger, with unguents and with 
drugs. They compounded confections, electuaries and syrups 3 , 
and drove a thriving trade in essences and perfumes. Many of 
them acquired considerable wealth; and, as we shall see here- 
after, one of the first Consuls of the Merchants was an apothe- 
cary 4 . 

A third craft which attained to importance in Pisa, in the 
twelfth century, was that of the Pellicciai or furriers. In those 
days Northern Germany, Scandinavia and Russia were as pro- 
lific of the skins of wild animals as the Hudson's Bay territory 
was in more modern times ; and furs were brought to Southern 
Europe not only by the great trade-routes leading to the head of 
the Adriatic, to Salonica and to Constantinople, but also by the 
Russian rivers which emptied into the Euxine. The Pisans ob- 
tained skins from the ports of the Black Sea, from Sardinia and 
from Africa, and, after they had dressed them, they exported 
them to inland Tuscany and to France 5 . In 11 73 Marangone, 
when recording the increase of prices in a time of scarcity, 
mentions the cost of miniver and other furs 6 , a fact from which 
we may safely infer that, at this period, such articles were al- 
ready in common use. In a document of 1194 we have record 
of a "Balduvinus pelliparius, capitaneus pellipariorum' , who 

1 Statuti inediti, III, 893, ad arm. 1236. 

2 See the privilege of Conrad II, whereby he granted to Archbishop 
Balduinus, among other things, "Feudum spectariorum qui morantur in 
Burgo S. Pauli in Kinsica." Tronci, Annali pisani rifusi, etc., op. cit. I, 243; 
Bonaini, Dipt, pisani, p. 10. 

3 Statuti inediti, III, 123, 326. * P. 248 infra. 

5 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 240, 241 ; Hodgson, The Early History of Venice, 
p. 150. 

6 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 69. 



246 PISA UNDER THE GOVERNMENT [ch. 

entered into an undertaking with the Archpriest Villano and 
the Canons of the cathedral 1 . A few months later we find that 
certain furriers had recently constructed an "embulum" close 
to the Porta a Mare, where they dwelt and laboured at their 
trade, and had projected the building of a church "in qua 
divina possint audire cotidie mistem 2 ." It was completed in 
the following year 3 . The Arte of the Pellicciai was evidently 
already in existence, albeit in a rudimentary form. The fact 
that it was governed by "Capitanei" instead of by Consuls 
raises a strong presumption that it had not as yet obtained full 
jurisdiction over its members 4 . 

For several centuries the cloth trade was, probably, the most 
flourishing European industry ; and it was favoured in Pisa by 
special conditions. Sardinia provided an abundant supply of 
wool ; herds of sheep were sent from the Garfagnana to winter in 
the Maremma under the protection of some powerful seignior 5 , 
or in the woods and meadows of the Canons of S. Rossore, 
between the mouths of the Serchio and the Arno 6 . The Marem- 
ma itself furnished large quantities of wool, though not of the 
best quality. The water-soaked soil, overgrown with thickets, 
and the climate, torrid in summer and moist in winter, were not 
adapted to the raising of a good class of sheep; while the ab- 
sence of enclosures and the use of the same pastures for different 
herds tended to deteriorate the breed. Fine wool was, however, 
obtained from Algarve and from France; the Arte della Lana 
flourished exceedingly and soon became practically autonomous ; 
its privileged position being no doubt largely due to the vast 
number of workmen employed in the different processes which 
went to the production of the finished article: wool-carders, 
wool-sorters, wool- washers, weavers, fullers, dyers, etc., all of 
whom together with their duties are enumerated in the Breve 

1 Statuti inediti, ill, 1092. 2 Ibid, ill, 1093. 

3 Ibid, in, 1094, and compare III, 1062 n. 

4 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 241, 242. 

5 Thus we read of sheep from the Garfagnana "fidantiae custodiaeque 
commissae" of Count Ildebrandino. Marangone, ubi cit. p. 63, ad ann. 1-173. 

6 In 1 1 56 a witness deposed that he had seen "turmas pecorum de Gar- 
fagnana stare in ea [silva] prope Arnum per canonicos." Bonaini, Dipl. 
pisani, p. 23. Cf. Volpe, op. cit. p. 77, n. 1. 



xix] OF THE CONSULS 247 

delV Arte delta Lana 1 . The Arno and the Ozari, to say nothing 
of the various canals and aqueducts which brought water from 
the hills, were of great assistance to the craft. It seems to have 
been carried on in all the four quarters of Pisa, and especially 
in Cinzica and Fuoriporta 2 . So far as I have been able to dis- 
cover, the first mention of the Arte in the documents is to be 
found in the "juramentum pads" which was sworn by a thou- 
sand Pisans and a thousand Genoese in February, 1188 3 . There, 
however, we encounter three "Consules Artis Lane"; so that 
it is clear that, by that time, the Arte was definitely constituted ; 
and we may infer with certainty that the cloth trade had existed 
in Pisa for very many years. A recognized Arte was the out- 
come of the united action of a long series of craftsmen. 

Meanwhile, merchants were attracted to Pisa from all parts 
of Tuscany and beyond by the great annual fair of St Mary of 
mid-August, which would appear to have been instituted as 
soon as the authority of the Commune had been formally recog- 
nized by the diploma of Frederick I 4 . Booths and stalls were 
set up in the open fields, and the ordinary activities of muni- 
cipal life were to a large extent suspended during the two weeks 
for which the fair lasted. Full freedom of traffic was accorded 
indifferently to citizen and foreigner; special officials were ap- 
pointed to keep the peace of the fair, and a special tribunal, 
corresponding to our pie-powder court 5 , was set up to transact 
legal business and to settle disputes between traders 6 . On the 

1 Statuti inediti, in, 702 seq. 2 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 235, 236. 

3 Dal Borgo, Diplomi pisani, p. 115. See also p. 217 supra. 

4 It is recorded only in the second Breve Consulum. 

5 See Blackstone's Comment, vol. in, chap. 2, and The Mirror of Justices, 
lib. 1, ch. 3: "...e qe de jour en jour se hastast droit destranges pleintifs en 
feires e marchiez cum pe poudrous solom lei marchande." Compare Lipson, 
op. cit. p. 223 et seq. The whole chapter is well worth reading. 

6 Statuti inediti, 1 (Br. Consulum 1164), p. 29: "Ante kalendas februarii 
proximiores, quinque consules de negotiatoribus meliores quam cognovero, 
ad utilitatem et honorem pisanae civitatis, eligam, eosque iurare faciam, 
mercatum sanctae Mariae mediantis augusti per vii dies ante ipsam festivi- 
tatem et septem postea, retinere in pratis iuxta podium et doraum Sacchetti 
positis ; et omnes artes quae ad utilitatem mercati mihi pertinere videbuntur, 
ad ipsum mercatum ire, ibique per iam statutos dies stare faciam: et ante 
kalendas augusti in publico parlamento, et de ipso mercato faciendo, publice 
dicam; et quicumque ad ipsum mercatum venire voluerit, secure veniat, 



248 PISA UNDER THE GOVERNMENT [ch. 

other hand, Pisan merchants frequented the fairs of France and 
Lombardy, and more especially the fairs of Ferrara, one of the 
chief centres of the Adriatic region, connected by means of 
roads and canals with Milan and with the other cities of the 
Valley of the Po 1 . 

This rapid development of industry and commerce on terra 
firma naturally produced a class of wealthy merchants, distinct 
from the sea-captains and armatori who had monopolized the 
government of the infant Commune ; and it soon became mani- 
fest that they could no longer be excluded from a certain limited 
participation in public affairs. The result was the creation of 
the Consuls of the Merchants. They first appear in the Breve 
Consilium of 1 162 : " Ante kalendas februarii proximiores quinque 
de negotiatoribus consules eligere faciam 2 "; and a document of 
the following year shows them to us in the exercise of their 
functions: "Nos Nicolaus speciarius et Giulicio q. Bellandi et 
Pisanus q. Lanfranchi et Rodulfus q. Andree a Consulibus 
Pisanorum mercatorum consules electi ad diffiniendas lites 
publicas vel privatas in nobis ad difrmiendum positas," etc. 3 . 
The number of Consuls is five in the Breve and four in the docu- 
ment; but, in both cases, the new officials appear as the ap- 
pointees of the Consuls of the Commune. Their business was 
to determine commercial suits and to regulate the manifold 
activities of the Arti. This is precisely the direction in which we 
should have expected the barriers of class exclusiveness to yield 
most readily, for the Consuls of the Commune had never pos- 
sessed extensive judicial powers. Theirs were the organization 
of the sea and land forces of the Republic, the conduct of its 
armies and its fleets ; theirs the financial administration of the 

exceptis homicidis et furibus et falsatoribus. Et hoc sine fraude per loca 
Tusciae, et alia de quibus mihi congruum videbitur, notum per nuntios vel 
litteras fieri faciam; et in ipso mercato duos consules, et provisores, et vigi- 
lem, et duos treguanos, pro iustitia facienda, per constitutes dies, praeesse 
faciam. Et vindictas, si necesse fuerit ad utilitatem mercati, fieri faciam; et 
nullam diricturam pro mercato tollam vel tollere faciam, nee quod tollatur 
consentiam." 

1 Volpe, op. cit. p. 222, and authorities there cited. 

2 Statuti inediti, 1, 5. Compare p. 245 supra. 

3 Arch, di Stato in Pisa, Perg. Coletti, 31 Die. 11 63. I quote it on the 
authority of Volpe, op. cit. p. 227. 



xix] OF THE CONSULS 249 

Commune and the negotiation of political and commercial 
treaties with other cities and with foreign princes: all which 
things they not only superintended but executed personally, of 
their own initiative and by their own prerogative. "Consules 
fecerunt," "Consules miserunt, , ' "Consules elegerunt," "Con- 
sules iusserunt," is the burden of the chronicle. Throughout 
the whole of its existence the Consulate preserves its original 
character of a power executive par excellence, possessing almost 
absolute liberty of initiative, and, therefore, occupied for the 
most part by men of war and of affairs. Occasionally, it is true, 
we encounter judices among the members of the Consular Col- 
lege; but they do not appear there in their character of Judges. 
At the beginning of the twelfth century, when the tribunal of 
the Consuls had superseded the tribunal of the Marquis, it still 
retained its ancient title, and the procedure which it had in- 
herited remained practically unchanged. Thus, in December, 
1 1 12, we find the Pisan populus assembled under the presidency 
of its Consuls to maintain the rights of the Archbishop against 
a usurper of his demesne lands "apud forum pisanae civitatis 
quae Curia Marchionis appellator 1 ." The dispute in question was 
decided extra-judicially, and the defendant renounced his pre- 
tensions "communi consilio et decreto Consulum et totius 
populi." Where, however, legal points were involved, the Con- 
suls, like the Marquises before them, simply presided over 
the tribunal and declared and confirmed 2 the decision of the 
judges, jurisconsults by profession, in whose hands was left the 
entire conduct of the proceedings. Only in cases of voluntary 
jurisdiction, or where the amount in dispute was comparatively 
trifling, did the Consuls themselves assume judicial functions 3 . 
Appointed by the Consular College, by the people, and not 
infrequently by the Archbishop, the judges were almost cer- 
tainly Imperial Judges, though, even anterior to the diploma of 
1132 4 , they are never designated as such. Rather do they ap- 
pear as an emanation of communal power, without any indica- 

1 Muratori, Aniiquitates , ill, Excerpta, 31 Die. 11 12. 

2 "Hanc sententiam laudo et confirmo." 

3 See p. 243 supra and Statuti inediti, 1, 13, 37. 

4 See p. 7, note 3 supra. 



250 PISA UNDER THE GOVERNMENT [ch. 

tion of the source from which they derived their authority : an 
illegality which the participation of the Archbishop was prob- 
ably intended to render less glaring 1 . In any case, that illegality 
was wholly remedied by the diploma of 1162 2 . 

In addition to the Imperial Judices, appointed for the trial of 
causes according to Roman or Longobard law, we also encounter 
another class of judges of a definitely civic character — Provisors, 
provisores — to whom was entrusted the decision of questions of 
customary law and of actions brought by foreigners: "ut ex 
equitate pro salute iustitie et salvamento civitatis, tarn civibus, 
quam advenis et peregrinis et omnibus universaliter in con- 
suetudinibus previderent 3 ." There seems, however, to have been 
no clear cut line of demarcation between the practice and juris- 
diction of the various courts, and only when, about the middle 
of the twelfth century, the laws and customs of the Commune 
were reduced to writing in two separate codices, " Constitutum 
Legis" "Constitutum Usus" did the jurisdiction of the Judges 
and Provisors cease to overlap 4 . Between 11 62 and 11 63 the 
position of the judiciary was materially improved by an enact- 
ment which permitted complaints to be laid, not only before 
the Consuls as heretofore, but also before the Judges and Pro- 
visors 5 . These changes were accompanied by a specialization of 
functions in the Consular College itself, and, ere long, the super- 
vision of the tribunals was entrusted to one of its members who 
assumed the title of Consul of Justice (Consul justitiae). It was 
his business to enforce the sentences of the courts by means of 
his nuntii or treguani, and the special duties of his office natur- 
ally tended to absorb the greater part of his energies. In the 
last decades of the century he probably participated but little 
in the ordinary activities of his colleagues ; and his magistracy 
long survived the extinction of the Consulate 6 . 

Thus, we perceive that the creation of Consules mercatorum 

1 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 137, 138. 

2 Dal Borgo, Diplomi pisani, p. 34. 

3 Statutiinediti, II, 813. 

4 Ibid., 1.1, Proemio, p. xvii; Volpe .pp. cit. pp. 139, 140. 

5 Ibid., 1, 4, 24, 25. 

6 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 140-144. 






xix] OF THE CONSULS 251 

was part of a general system of reform ; the result of two dis- 
tinct and separate forces: one acting from below, and set in 
motion by the merchant class, already on its way to become a 
corporate body and desirous of a special court and special pro- 
cedure ; the other from above and due to the general policy of 
the Consuls, who were not unwilling to specialize yet further 
the functions of the Judiciary. Elected "pro bono civitatis" 
and possessing only a delegated authority, the Consuls of the 
Merchants were, at first, without political power, and, for more 
than a quarter of a century, they seem to have taken no part 
even in the commercial treaties of the Republic 1 . Their first 
appearance in a collegial and official capacity belongs to the year 
1 1 88; but by that time their position was fully established. In 
the long list of Pisan citizens who swore to the peace with 
Genoa, the Consules majores de Comuni are immediately fol- 
lowed by three Consules mercatorum, Gherardo da Scorno, Odi- 
mondo Ciconia and Gherardo Cortevecchia, and by three Con- 
sules Artis Lane, Lamberto Bonone, Stefano Masca and Gual- 
fredo Mele 2 . Nor are these the names of unknown men. All 
of them were members of consular families, and all but one of 
them had actually held office as Consuls of the Commune 3 . It 
is, therefore, abundantly clear that, in the last quarter of the 
twelfth century, not only were the Consuls of the Merchants and 
the Consuls of the Arte della Lana the freely elected heads of 
two great mercantile corporations; but the merchants on terra 
firma had already succeeded in forcing their way into the sacred 
circle of the Associated families. The Commune no longer con- 
sisted exclusively of merchant adventurers and armatori*. 

1 Volpe, op. tit. pp. 233, 234. 

2 Dal Borgo, Diplomi pisani, pp. 114, 115. 

3 Volpe, op. tit. p. 269, notes 1 and 2, and authorities there cited. 

4 Ibid., pp. 267-270. 



CHAPTER THE TWENTIETH 
CONSORTERIE GENTILIZIE 

During the latter half of the twelfth century the Italian cities 
exercised a marked centripetal attraction on the inhabitants of 
the country districts, though, in a large number of cases, the 
motive power, in so far as it affected the feudal seigniors, w r as 
nothing better than naked compulsion. Assailed by the citizens, 
they were forced to swear submission to the civic magistrates, 
to build palaces in the cities and to reside there for a specified 
period in every year. For the vanquished, citizenship was, in 
fact, a concomitant of vassalage. In Pisa, on the other hand, 
less violent methods were generally adopted. For historical and 
geographical reasons, the Pisans had, as we have seen, lived on 
unusually amicable terms with the feudatories of their contado, 
seeking rather to lure than to coerce them to the service of the 
Commune. As a result the privileges and responsibilities of 
citizenship were not infrequently voluntarily assumed. 

In the eleventh century the Gherardesca of the Volterran 
Maremma descended the valley of the Era, with slow but con- 
tinual movement; they established themselves in the valley of 
the Arno, from Ventrignano, near S. Miniato al Tedesco, to 
Settimo, at the gates of Pisa, and there they intermarried with 
the Visconti. Over Ventrignano they exercised feudal jurisdic- 
tion, and, after it had been destroyed by Christian of Mayence, 
they transferred their curia to Monte Bicchieri which had been 
built by the fugitives, who, however, remained subject to the 
" placita et banna " of the counts. Continually involved in terri- 
torial disputes with the Bishops of Volterra, the Gherardesca 
naturally sought assistance from Pisa, and, either as direct allies 
of the city or as vassals of the Aldobrandeschi, they played no 
inconsiderable part in the wars and foreign policy of the Com- 



ch.xx] CONSORTERIE GENTILIZIE 253 

mune during the twelfth century 1 . Meanwhile, however, the 
nature of some of the more vigorous scions of the civic aristo- 
cracy had been completely changed by contact with the neigh- 
bouring seigniors. Anterior to her marriage with Count Ugo, 
the last of the Cadolinghi 2 , the Countess Cecilia, herself the 
daughter of a feudal family beyond the Apennines, had been 
the wife of one of the Upezzinghi of Pisa; and, when Ugo died 
without male heirs, in 11 13, the Upezzinghi acquired part of 
the rich inheritance. Having established themselves in the plain 
and on the hills about the mouth of the Era, they extended their 
dominion to the fiefs of Calcinaia, Travalda, Pontedera, Bien- 
tina, and finally to Marti nella Valle 3 . So powerful did they 
become that, as we have already seen, they were able, in 1172, 
to repulse the Count Guido and the Lucchesi when they invaded 
the Pisan contado*. In the second half of the twelfth century 
they possessed their own court and their own consuls who ad- 
ministered justice to their dependants 5 . 

As yet, neither Gherardesca nor Upezzinghi had permanently 
taken up their abode in Pisa ; and the same is true of the great 
majority of the Cattani of Versiglia and Garfagnana who from 
time to time swore fealty to the Commune, and " venerunt Pisas 
pro servitio civitatis 6 ." Some of the Ripafratta, on the other 
hand, had already acquired land and constructed towers in the 
city; while, towards the middle of the century, the nobles of 
Caprona abandoned their ancestral castle and established them- 
selves in Pisa 7 . In 11 62 the Cattani of Valdera swore fealty to 

1 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 259, 260, and authorities there cited. See also Repetti, 
Dizionario , cited, vol. I, p. 319, s.t. Bicchieri {Monte), and vol. vi, app. c. xi, 
pp. 46-54. 

2 See Repetti, Dizionario, cited, vol. vi, app. c. ix, pp. 34-37. 

3 Volpe, op. cit. p. 260. 

4 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 65: "Illustres et nobiles milites Opithingi cum 
Vicariensibus et aliis de Calcinaria fuerunt obviam eis, et cum eis bellum 
fecerunt, et gratia Dei, quinto Kal. Septembris, illos vicerunt...." Compare 
p. 203 supra. 

5 Bonaini, Dipl.pisani, p. 58, doc. xix: "Nos Vguicio quondam Vguicionis 
et Guttenacius quondam Alferii et Rainaldus quondam Bulimani et Vguicio 
quondam Gratticii Opettingorum et Cadulingiorum consules...." 

6 Bonaini, Dipl. pisani, p. 48. See, however, Marangone, ubi cit. p. 59, 
where we are told that " Gerardus de Vallechia, nobilis miles, Pisas cum 
uxore et filiis et familia venit habitare." 

7 Volpe, op. cit. p. 261, and authorities there cited. 



254 CONSORTERIE GENTILIZIE [ch. 

the Consuls and received at their hands "terram prope ecclesiam 
Sancti Cassiani de Kinsica in feudum,...pro aedificandis domi- 
bus 1 ," together with a part of the ripatico 2 . Towards the end 
of the century, certain feudatories of the mountainous region 
contested by Pisa and Lucca began to settle in the former city : 
for example, the Porcari and the da Corvara 3 . To these we may 
add the "lombardi" or "proceres" of S. Cassiano, and the 
nobles of Buriano, who, in 1195, possessed a tower and a shop 
in Pisa 4 . For the most part, they inhabited the new quarters 
of Cinzica, Fuoriporta and Ponte, where the new bourgeoisie of 
merchants on terra firma and the "populus" of the industries 
and the arti predominated over the armatori and sea-captains 
of the old regime. 

Among the thousand citizens who swore, in 1188, to the 
peace with Genoa, over a hundred and thirty bear names which 
are taken from the towns and villages of the Pisan contado, and 
they no doubt represent the earliest type of immigration from 
the country districts; lesser feudatories and small landed pro- 
prietors, most of them apparently of Teutonic origin. They 
come especially from S. Cassiano, Cascina,Vico, Scorno, Oliveto, 
Vecchiano, Fagiano, Campi, Pontedera, Ceuli, Forculi, Capan- 
nori, Tripalle, Buti, Quosa, Asciano, etc. ; neither do there lack 
Sardinians and Corsicans 5 . It is, moreover, a significant fact 
that of these hundred and thirty names no fewer than fifty- 
three are written in well-defined groups. After the Visconti 
come eight counts, of Donoratico, Cornino, Biserno and Cas- 
tagneto ; eight Upezzinghi, seven Capronesi and ten of the Ripa- 
fratta. Hitherto even the greatest of them has never attained 
to consular rank; they are citizens, but citizens "minoris iuris," 
and no Maremman count, no Upezzinghi can yet aspire to be 
admitted to that holy of holies. Very rarely, in the last years of 

1 See pp. 131, 132 supra. 

2 Statuti inediti, I {Br. Consilium, 1164), p. 39: "Et universum redditum 
ripac.expendere faciam, extracto Peciolentium feodo." 

3 Among the citizens who swore to the peace with Genoa, in 1188, we 
find a Veltrus de Corvara and four Porcari (Dal Borgo, Dipl. pisani, pp. 117 
and 123). One of the sarcophagi in the Campo Santo bears the inscription: 
sepvlcrvm nobilivm de porcari. (See Volpe, op. cit. p. 261, n. 6.) 

4 Volpe, op. cit. p. 262: "bottega della torre di Gualando da Buriano e 
consorti." 6 Dal Borgo, DipL pisani, pp. 1 14-126. 



xx] CONSORTERIE GENTILIZIE 255 

the century, we find a S. Cassiano, a da Caprona, or a Ripafratta 
among the Consuls 1 . 

Just as the "populus" found unity and strength in the com- 
mercial and industrial associations of the Arti, so did the nobles 
associate themselves in family groups {consorterie gentilizie) 
united by ties of blood and common interests. During the long 
period of anarchy which preceded the communal era, the State 
as a unifying social force had become little better than a phan- 
tom. The political unit was no longer the nation or the city, but 
the family. Compelled to provide for its own security, the 
family changed its character; patriarchal government was re- 
vived, and only such persons as were agnatically connected and 
subject to the same paternal power were recognized as kinsmen. 
Everything was sacrificed to the two essentials of unity and 
strength; women were deprived of nearly all their rights, the 
daughter passing from the mundium of the father to the mun- 
dium of the husband ; real property was held in common ; that 
the family might be always ready for defence and for offence, 
all its members, to the second and third generation, dwelt to- 
gether beneath a single roof, and when, at last, the ancestral 
dwelling-place no longer sufficed to hold them all, new houses 
arose about the old one, and a little quarter of the city was en- 
tirely occupied by men of the same blood 2 . 

In an age when public authority was too weak to enforce 
the law or to afford adequate protection to the individual, the 
family, of necessity, avenged its own injuries; and it would 
hardly be too much to say that, in the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries, revenge {vendetta) was the only form of punitive 
| justice known to men 3 . The old Longobard system of personal 
vengeance had been greatly modified by the formation of the 

1 Volpe, op. cit. p. 263. 

2 See N. Tammasia, La Famiglia Italiana (Milano, Remo Sandron, 1910), 
cap. iv, and particularly pp. 110-113. 

3 Statutes and chronicles alike speak of the punishment meted out for 
criminal offences as vendetta, and Dante uses the same word to express the 
justice of the Almighty Himself. See Statuti inediti, 1, 36, 37; Marangone, 
ubi cit. p. 36 ("iustitias et vindictas fecerunt"); Inferno, vn, 12; xi, 90; 
Purgatorio, xx, 95, etc., etc. 



256 CONSORTERIE GENTILIZIE [ch. 

consorteria ; and in the communal period the vendetta privata 
was carried on less by the individual than by the association. 
It thus assumed a certain dignity: and, given a sufficient cause, 
it was a sacred duty which could not be shirked. Its execution 
was looked upon as an obligation which was due not only to 
the honour of the family and consorteria of the offended person, 
but also to society at large, and the prosecution of such a ven- 
geance, if legitimately accomplished, was no more felt to be a 
sin than is to-day the passing of the death sentence by the judge 
and its execution by the hangman. The consorti of the injured 
man were encouraged by the belief that God favours a just, 
prompt and courageous retribution of evil; they washed the 
blood of their vengeance from their hands with the good con- 
science which comes from paying a lawful debt, and realized 
as fully as Wordsworth realized how fair is Duty's smile when 
her mandate is not neglected and the task she sets is not de- 
ferred. The obligation of revenge was deeply rooted in the 
thought of the mediaeval Commune. The good name of the 
consorteria must be maintained always, at all costs, and by every 
possible means. If one of the consorti received an injury, or, 
worse still, was slain in an affray or by treachery, the other 
consorti were bound to restore the honour of their casata by 
taking a bold and virile vengeance, or, in the alternative, to 
submit to the sneers and gibes of their neighbours, who would 
insult them with the title of " donnicciuole " or offer to send one 
of their number, a stranger to the blood-feud, to far ven- j 
detta for them out of charity. Witness, for example, the case 
of that Jacopo of the Ghibelline faction, whose lack of courage 
had made him a common butt among the Guelfs, and against | 
whom Rustico di Filippo, no mean poet and himself a staunch J 
Ghibelline, hurled those jeering lines, which, for all their ap- 
parently good-natured banter, reveal clearly enough the scorn i 
which inspired them : 

A voi messere Iacopo comare 

Rustico si accomanda fedelmente, 

e dice, se vendetta avete a fare 

ch' e' la fara di buon cuor, lealmente. 



xx] CONSORTERIE GENTILIZIE 257 

At a period when it was considered an abiding disgrace to seek 
justice from the "legisto" instead of awaiting an opportune 
moment for revenge, such scoffs must have carried with them 
a cruel sting; and it will be remembered how steadfastly the 
Cerchi refused to declare who it was who had assailed and dis- 
figured their Ricoverino, "aspettando fame grande vendetta 1 ." 

At a very early period the father was held responsible for 
the offences of his sons, the " dominus " for those of the family 2 ; 
but such enactments only operated to bind the members of the 
consorteria closer together and to convert their loyalty and soli- 
darity from a rule of conduct, enforced by the sanction of public 
opinion, into a vital necessity. Their unity was maintained by 
an iron discipline. The whole clan stood ready to take up arms 
at the command of the "dominus/' and in times of peace, 
baptisms, marriages, funerals, treaties, banquets, continually 
brought the kinsmen together in the "casa" or in the church 
of the consorteria. Every individual occupied the place which 
belonged to him according to his relationship to the head of the 
house ; no important action of any member could hope to escape 
the vigilance of the rest ; and conduct which threatened to bring 
dishonour upon the family was ruthlessly punished by im- 
prisonment or in extreme cases even by death 3 . 

In Pisa, as we have seen, the consorterie of the feudal immi- 
grants were at first neither very strong nor very numerous. 
Divided between the city and the contado, and without much 
share in the maritime life of the Commune, their main interests 

1 Dino Compagni, Cronica, I, 22 (pp. 63,64 of Benecke and Ferrers 
Howell's translation, Temple Classics). See, on the whole subject, Tammasia, 
op. cit. cap. 11; G. Arias, Le istituzioni giuridiche medievali nella Divina Corn- 
media (Firenze, Lumachi, 1901), and Del Lungo, Una Vendetta in Firenze (in 
Dal Secolo e dal Poema di Dante, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1898), p. 65 et seq. 

2 Statuti inediti, 1 {Br. Consulum, 1164), p. 36: " Ita tamen ut pater pro 
offensa filii, et dominus pro familia...teneatur." 

3 Tammasia, op. cit. pp. 111-119; Volpe, op. cit. pp. 258,259. In the 
Annates Ianuenses of 1264 we read that when the "nobiles viri de progenie 
Guerciorum" heard that Guglielmo Guercio, Potesta of the Genoese in 
Constantinople, "civitatem constantinopolitam traditurus erat in manibus 
Latinorum, accesserunt in pleno consilio Janue, petentes, ex gratia speciali, 
quod Comune Janue jam dictum Guilielmum Januam pedibus et manibus 
ligatum faceret apportari et quod ipsum eundem iisdem traderet iudicandum, 
etc." 

H. 17 



258 CONSORTERIE GENTILIZIE [ch. 

still centred in their ancestral estates, where they long continued 
to exercise much of their ancient patrimonial and feudal 
authority through the agency of their Consuls 1 . In the city, on 
the other hand, they, like the lesser Arti 2 , were generally repre- 
sented by "Capitanei"; the title of "Consules" being reserved 
for the heads of Commune and of the great mercantile corpora- 
tions of the Arte delta Lana and the Mercatanti; a distinction 
which, probably, indicates a different grade of jurisdiction and 
a different relationship with the central government 3 . Mean- 
while, however, the Consorteria had become the typical form 
of association of the maritime and consular aristocracy. "Do- 
mus" was the term used to denote the whole body of the 
"consorti"; and we find many of them in the list of jurants to 
the treaty of 1188. Among the rest we may recall ten names of 
Gaetani, six of Lanfranchi and eighteen of Gualandi 4 ; while, 
in a document of the following century, nine "capitanei homi- 
num domus Gualandorum " appear as patrons of a hospital, 
the administration of which they shared with the Archbishop 5 . 
On the 22nd of December, 1159, Ugo Visconti, Ugo da Par- 
lascio, Ranuccino da S. Cassiano and Barile, "qui dicebantur 
consules et capitanei suorum consortum," together with many 
of their associates, in all no fewer than thirty persons, were 
cited by the Archbishop before the public judges. In the opinion 
of Professor Volpe, however, this consorteria was different in 
character from those already mentioned, resembling the asso- 
ciations so often entered into between two or more rural com- 
munities which had collectively received a feud or "livello" at 
the hands of a single seignior, and consequently assumed the 
characteristics of a consorzio in their relationship to him. Here, 
in fact, the consorti belong to different families: Visconti, 

1 In 1 174 we have notice of " Consules Opettingorum et Cadulingorum." 
See p. 253, n. 4 supra. That the consorti of Ripafratta possessed consuls 
is proved by their Breve, published by Bonaini, Arch. Stor. It. T. vi, P. II, 
808-812. Other examples will be found in Volpe, op. cit. p. 263, n. 3. 

2 See p. 246 supra. 

3 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 263, 264. 

4 Dal Borgo, Dipl. pisani, pp. 115, 116. 

5 Arch, del Seminario, Pisa, Contratti e testam. T. 1, n. 4, 26 febr. 1239 
(cited by Volpe, p. 264, n. 1). 






xx] CONSORTERIE GENTILIZIE 259 

S. Cassiano, da Parlascio, Capronesi, etc.; and their consorzio 
seems to have been based upon their common possession of a 
marsh at Vecchiano which they had usurped from the Arch- 
bishop, possibly after holding it in "livello" for a long term of 
years 1 . Thus we have a consorteria which is a federation of 
many lesser consorterie: a phenomenon which was destined to 
repeat itself also in the economic and commercial associations 
of the Arti. The larger consorterie gentilizie were formed for the 
most part by a successive aggregation of family groups about 
the central nucleus of a single powerful " domus " to which they 
were bound by intermarriage, by common commercial interests, 
and by common political aims. More than anything else, a 
"grandissimo parentado" enabled the consorteria to make its 
influence felt in public affairs 2 . 

At the end of the twelfth century, for example, although it 
would be possible to go back to a much earlier period, we have 
record of a consorteria consisting of Duodi and Gaetani who 
were in litigation with the canons concerning certain rights of 
piscary 3 ; and, later on, we find the same consorteria composed 
of Duodi, Gaetani and Gusmari 4 . Next to the necessity of de- 
fending their common interests, the most powerful bond of 
union between the families who formed a consorteria was, per- 
haps, the patronage of a church together with the exercise of 
the rights inherent thereto; and certainly the foundation of a 
church was often one of their earliest collective actions. Thus 
the Duodi, Gaetani and Gusmari held the patronage of the 
church of the monastery of S. Vito sull' Arno 5 , ecclesiastically 
dependent on the Abbot of S. Gorgonio 6 , but erected upon land 
which they had granted, and endowed at their own expense. 
They intervened or wished to intervene, for their right to do 
so was not undisputed, at the election and installation of the 

1 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 264, 265. 

2 Tammasia, op. cit. p. 116. 

3 Arch. Canonici, Perg. 2 apr. 1193 (cited by Volpe, p. 267, n. 1). 

4 Arch, di Stato, Pisa, Perg. Certosa, 20 apr. e 17 maggio 1213; 16 luglio 
1229 (cited by Volpe, p. 267, n. 2). 

5 See Morrona, Pisa illustrata, op. cit. T. Ill, pp. 204-206, and The Story 
of Pisa ("Mediaeval Towns" Series), op. cit. p. 304. 

8 See Repetti, Dizionario, cited, 11, 600, Art. " Isola della Gorgona." 

17—2 



26o CONSORTERIE GENTILIZIE [ch. 

Abbot, and they claimed the privilege of defending the church 
and its possessions against all who should seek to injure it, and 
especially on those occasions when the monks went to the 
Island of Gorgona to make choice of a new Abbot. In return 
they demanded that, on feast days, prayers should be offered 
up "coram populo" for the consorti and their ancestors, as 
patrons of the church, and that, when one of them died, the 
great bell should be rung "pro collecta hominum." In 1213 the 
Abbot of S. Vito contested their rights as an infringement upon 
his jurisdiction; but, on the consorti agreeing to make oath not 
to molest him, a compromise was arrived at whereby most of 
their claims were recognized 1 . For the rest, it must not be sup- 
posed that the bonds which united the members of a consorteria 
necessarily deprived them of all capacity for other relationships. 
For every fresh collective enterprise it was possible to form new 
alliances between families belonging to different consorterie, and 
that without any weakening in the coherence of the pre-existing 
groups. A case in point will be found in the association, in 
1 182, of the Gualandi, Gaetani, Duodi and Galli, for the pur- 
pose of constructing a bridge across the Arno between the Via 
S. Antonio and the Via S. Maria. The project was, however, 
bitterly opposed by other powerful citizens ; and no sooner was 
the work begun than they took up arms and not only destroyed 
during the night what had been built in the day, but sacked 
and burned a tower of the Gualandi 2 . Later on, the undertaking 
was resumed and successfully carried through by the co-opera- 
tion of the Gaetani, Duodi, Galli, Lanfreducci, Bellomi, Bocci, 
Gualandi and Biserno 3 . 

The factions which tormented each Italian city, and, in their 
turn, wreaked wider and sterner vengeance on their adversaries 
than the members of any single house, however powerful, could 
hope to achieve, were merely larger consorterie composed of 
many casate, allied together for a common cause; and because 
the government of the Commune was, as a rule, the govern- 

1 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 265, 266. 

2 Roncioni, ubi cit. pp. 404, 405. 

3 Volpe, op. cit. p. 266; and see Statnti inediti, 1, 645, 1 e 2 ottobre, 1258, 
Elezione del Pontonario in 1257. 



xx] CONSORTERIE GENTILIZIE 261 

ment of the predominant faction for the time being, public 
justice often took the form of a legalized vendetta, and patriotism 
was narrowed down to party spirit. Dante's traitors to their 
country, frozen in the solid ice of Antenora, were all of them 
traitors to their faction. Bocca degli Abati, he of Duera, Gianni 
de' Soldanieri and the rest betrayed their faction to the advan- 
tage of the adverse party. Not one of them betrayed his country 
in the modern meaning of the term. Moreover, Dante makes 
no distinction between party and party, but punishes equally 
all those sinners in the lowest region of the Inferno, since, ac- 
cording to the thought of his age, the traitor to his party was 
always vile. Therefore it was that, after the cult of the individual 
and the family, mediaeval honour demanded fidelity to the 
faction : 

A me ed a' miei primi ed a mia parte 1 . 

That verse epitomizes not a man but the man of the Middle 
Ages 2 . Neither is it impossible that, as Professor Arias sug- 
gests, the mediaeval conception of the solidarity of the family, 
of the consorteria and of the Commune may explain those ter- 
rible invectives against Florence, Pisa, Genoa and Pistoia. The 
sacrilegious robbery perpetrated by the Pistoiese Vanni Fucci 
arouses in the Poet the desire that all Pistoia may be burned to 
ashes (Inferno, xxv, 10); the abominable treason of Branca 
d' Oria provokes the fierce denunciation of the Genoese (In- 
ferno, xxxiii, 151); and the cruel death of Ugolino that of Pisa 
(Inferno, xxxm, 79). 

1 Inferno, x, 47. 

2 G. Arias, op. cit. pp. 114, 115. 



CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIRST 
FROM CONSULS TO POTESTA 

As the century grew older, the associated families which con- 
stituted the Commune gradually ceased to be the natural and 
inevitable representatives of their fellow-citizens. The mer- 
chants on terra firma, the Arti y the landed proprietors, had 
other ideals and other aspirations than those of the sea-captains 
and armatori; and, little by little, even the holy of holies of the 
Consulship was, as we have seen, invaded by men of a different 
class 1 . Having lost its homogeneity, the ruling aristocracy was 
torn by conflicting interests 2 ; and, in order to enable the Con- 
sular College to govern at all, it seems to have become necessary 
to elect a president or "primus consul 3 /' a kind of apyu>v eVa>- 
vv/jlos, invested with authority to take action on his own initia- 
tive in the name of his colleagues 4 . In time of war, one, and 
rarely more than one, of the Consuls was appointed head of the 
army, and exercised almost unlimited jurisdiction both within 
and without the city ; the numbers of the College tended to de- 
crease; and the way was opened for the coming of the Potesta 5 . 
Meanwhile, the great feudal families of the contado began to 
aspire to a share in the government; and, after the descent of 
Barbarossa into Italy, we find the Gherardesca taking an ever- 
increasing part in public affairs. Together with the Consuls and 
the Archbishop, Count Gherardo represented the Commune at 
the Diet of S. Genesio, in 1160 6 ; and in the Imperial diploma 

1 P. 251 supra. 2 Volpe, op. cit. p. 268 et seq. 

3 See the inscription reported by Da Morrona, op. cit. hi, 495 : 
AN. D. MCLVII. CHOCCVS QVONDAM GRIPHI PMVS CONSVL 

PISANE CIVITATIS. 

4 Compare Marangone, ubi cit. p. 17: "Anno Domini mclvii, duodecima 
Kal. Madii, incoepta est turris Meloriae, et totus girus est expletus in con- 
sulatu Cocci, et ipse complevit et fecit..." 

5 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 279, 280. 6 P. 126 supra. 



ch. xxi] FROM CONSULS TO POTESTA 263 

of 1 178 we find him described as "comes Gherardus de Pisa 1 ." 
There was, of course, no feudal investiture ; but the fact remains 
that the Gherardesca had achieved a privileged position in the 
State which must have habituated the minds of the citizens to 
the idea of a personal authority entirely distinct from that of 
the existing magistrates of the republic. The power of the Vis- 
conti, who, for many years, were virtually the heads of the 
Consular College, may well have contributed to the same result. 
Gherardesca and Visconti were, in fact, the first Pisan Potesta, 
elected and re-elected again and again 2 . 

It will be remembered how, after 1160, Imperial Counts or 
Potesta appeared in Siena, in S. Miniato, in Volterra and in 
Florence 3 ; and, albeit in Pisa, caressed and favoured by the 
Emperor, we know nothing of any such officials, we soon begin 
to encounter curious phrases in the Pisan documents which de- 
serve our careful consideration. Thus, in the agreement of 
October, 1 169, between the Pisan Consuls and the " Cattani " of 
Corvara, the latter covenanted not to make peace or truce "sine 
parabola pisanorum consulum...vel sine parabola pisanorum 
rectoris vel dominatoris 4 "; in 1171 the Pisans swore to insert 
the terms of the treaty with Florence "in breve consulum vel 
rectoris 5 ," and, in 1174, those of the peace with Corneto in the 
future Breve "consulum vel rectoris aut dominatoris vel potes- 
tatis 6 ." In 1 178, in a convention entered into between the Con- 
suls of the Commune and the Operaio del Duomo the former 
undertook : " Et in brevi ad quod sequentes consules vel rectores 
aut rector aut dominatores aut potestas sunt iuraturi mittere 
faciemus predicta omnia... 7 ." These terms, "rectores," "domi- 
natores," "potestas," have never been used before; and it is 
impossible to regard them as mere notarial redundancies, sy- 
nonymous with "consules." At the same time, it is clear that 
they refer not to Imperial but to civic officials who were bound 
to follow the established tradition of civic government. The 
"rectores aut dominatores aut potestas" swear to a Breve and 

1 Bonaini, Dipl. pisani, p. 67. 2 Volpe, op. cit. p. 281. 

3 See p. 158 supra. 4 Bonaini, Dipl. pisani, p. 49. 

6 Santini, Documenti, op. cit. p. 6. 6 Volpe, op. cit. p. 283. 

7 Bonaini, Dipl. pisani, p. 63. 



264 FROM CONSULS TO POTESTA [ch. 

can only transmit their authority to the Consuls or Potesta who 
succeed them, if they in their turn take a like oath. Neither is 
it difficult to understand how, when the Consular College was 
lacerated by internal discord, or when, as in Genoa in 1194, 
" universus populus factus est inobediens consulatui 1 , ,, it became 
necessary to concentrate the whole authority of the State in the 
hands of an alo-vfivtfrris, a single powerful citizen, a stranger 
to their quarrels. Such an one was Oberto d' Olevano, that 
"vir utique nobilis ac strenuus" elected by the Genoese to be 
"consul et potestas 2 " ; and such, perhaps, was Scudocollo di 
Aldobrandino, "dominus Senensis Civitatis," in 1151 3 . The 
new office was, at first, purely provisory, and the eventual re- 
establishment of the Consulship was always regarded as not 
only probable but certain; sometimes the two magistracies co- 
existed, and the Potesta seems to have simply exercised the 
authority of "primus consul 4 ." In no case was the introduction 
of the potestaria immediately destructive of consular govern- 
ment 5 . We have record of Consuls in Pisa at least as late as 
1214 6 . 

As we have already seen 7 , the first "Potestas pisanae civi- 
tatis " whose name occurs in the annals of the city was Tedicio 
di Castagneto, a member of the consorteria Gherardesca. To 
him, as representing the Commune, was granted the Imperial 
diploma of 1191 — "tibi Theodicio Potestati pisano recipienti 
pro civitate pisana " — and it is interesting to note that, together 
with Tedicio, "Reinerius Gaitani, Albertus Vicecomes, Beren- 
hardus Capitaneus, Iordanus Iudex, Albertus Walandi, Bul- 
garinus Vicecomes, Bulsus quondam Petri, Gaytanus Burgundi, 
Comes Regno et omnes consiliarij pisane civitatis et Comites de 
mare et alii quamplures" swore fealty to the Emperor 8 . Who 

1 Otoboni Scribae Annates lanuenses, p. 45. 2 Ibid, ubi cit. 

3 Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, xv, 14; R. Arch, di Stato in Siena, Caleffo 
Vecchio, a c. 21. 

4 Villari, I primi due secoli, etc., op. cit. 1, 141. 

5 See my A History of Perugia, p. 31, and, on the whole subject, Volpe, 
op. cit. pp. 283-289. 

6 Santini, Documenti, op. cit. pp. 177-179, No. lxii. See also Volpe, op, 
cit. cap. v, and particularly p. 342. 

7 P. 220 supra. 8 Bonaini, Dipl. pisani, p. 112. 



xxi] FROM CONSULS TO POTESTA 265 

or what the " Comes Regno" was I am unable to state. As to 
" Berenhardus Capitaneus," he may have been either captain 
of the knights, "capitaneus militum 1 ," or one of the Captains 
of the four administrative and judicial districts into which the 
contado was now divided: Valdera, Valdarno, Valdiserchio and 
Colline. Certainly these two offices were already in existence; 
the result of increasing specialization of functions in the Con- 
sular College and of the institution of the Potesta, many of 
whose duties were necessarily delegated to subordinate officials 2 . 
Perhaps, however, the most important new magistracy of whose 
appearance we have evidence in this list of jurants is that of the 
"comites de mare" who may undoubtedly be identified with 
the "consules maris" of later documents. 

At first sight, it may seem strange that, in a maritime city, 
Consuls of the Merchants and Consuls of the Arte della Lana 
should precede in point of time Consuls of the Sea. The ex- 
planation, however, is not far to seek. So long as the whole 
power of the State was centred in the Consuls of the Commune 
the Ordine del Mare had no possible raison d'etre. Only with 
the coming of the Potesta did the consular aristocracy organize 
itself as a commune within a commune, thus returning to the 
conditions of the eleventh century, when the associated families 
of sea-captains and armatori constituted a "floating republic," 
leaving the government on dry land to the Bishop and to the 
Visconte. All the names of the "consules maris" of which we 
have record up to the middle of the thirteenth century are 
names of members of old consular families; Carletti, Modani, 
Sismondi, Gaetani, Orlandi, Duodi, Alfeo, Grasso, Assopardi, 
etc. 3 . As yet, however, neither the duties of the Potesta nor of 
the Consules Maris were definitely fixed. At the dawn of the 
Dugento the institutions of Pisa were in a state of flux ; and it 
is probable that, in their origin, the "Comites de mare" were, 
like so many of the other magistracies, nothing more than a 
temporary balia. 

1 As to the term "milites," see my A History of Perugia, op. cit. p. 42. 

2 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 295, 296, and authorities there cited. 

3 On the whole subject see Volpe, op. cit. pp. 296-305. 



266 FROM CONSULS TO POTESTA [ch. 

From the tenth century onwards, piracy was, as I have said, 
an ordinary incident of Mediterranean life. The right of re- 
prisal {rappresaglia) was firmly rooted in the consciousness of 
the Middle Ages ; and no sooner had a sea-captain or merchant 
adventurer suffered loss or injury than he hastened to arm one 
or more galleys, and put out to sea to take vengeance on the 
fellow-citizens of the offenders 1 . Neither, in the majority of 
cases, was he over particular whom he attacked. Like the Eng- 
lish and Huguenot corsairs who swarmed in the Channel and 
preyed upon Spanish commerce in the days of Elizabeth, he 
treated every ship with a valuable cargo as fair game, whatever 
its nationality ; the crews were made to walk the plank and the 
booty was carried home in triumph 2 . Naturally, such proceed- 
ings gave birth to new reprisals and new contests, until the 
entire seafaring population lived as much by rapine as by com- 
merce. Many of the Italian mariners who came to the help of 
Baldwin I against Sidon, in 1108, were nothing better than 
pirates 3 ; and, in the last years of the twelfth century, the evil 
increased beyond all measure. It seemed as though the mari- 
time cities of Italy had destroyed the Saracen corsairs only to 
supplant and outdo them. After the treaty of Pavia 4 , few of 
those private armatori who, like the "nobiles viri de compagnia 
Deciaureria," had fitted out galleys at their own expense to 
prey upon the Genoese 5 , were minded to abandon a mode of 
life which had brought them wealth and reputation; and they 
continued their depredations as though no peace had ever been 
made, playing a similar role at sea to that afterwards played on 
land by the Companies of Adventure in the Trecento. Boni- 
facio became an " abode of pirates, a den of thieves, who laid 
snares of Satan in the ways and passages of the sea to take 

1 The case of Ottone Ruffo is a good example. See p. 137 supra. 

2 Compare J. A. Froude, The Reign of Elizabeth ("Everyman's Library" 
edition), n, 466 et seq., and E. S. Beesly, Queen Elizabeth (Macmillan, 1892), 
pp. 79, 80. 

3 See p. 53, n. 4 supra. 4 P. 205 supra. 

5 Marangone, ubi cit. p. 61, and compare p. 68 : "Anno Domini mclxxiiii. 
In Consulatu Ruberti etc....quidam ex nobilibus Pisanorum civibus galeas 
super Ianuenses viriliter armaverunt; et VI magnas naves Ianuensium sine 
aliis minutis prendiderunt cum maximo havere." 



xxi] FROM CONSULS TO POTESTA 267 

therein the merchants and travellers who went upon the sea 1 ." 
Their activities grievously imperilled the relations of the Com- 
mune with other maritime states and cities, and led to long and 
difficult diplomatic negotiations 2 . Stringent enactments were 
passed against them 3 ; but in time of war their services were 
indispensable. The statement of the Genoese annalist that all 
the hope and confidence of the Pisans rested on their corsairs 
and pirates was not without an element of truth 4 ; and it is by 
no means impossible that the first appearance of the "comites 
de mare" may be due to this fact. What more likely, in view of 
the Sicilian expedition, than the appointment of a special balia 
to collect and organize the corsairs as an integral part of the 
sea-power of Pisa ? 

We have now followed the fortunes of the city through the 
period of its greatest triumphs, and henceforward the history 
of Pisa is, as I have said, a history of decline. That decline was, 
however, at first extremely gradual. Her great days were not 
yet done. Never were the Pisans nearer to obtaining the un- 
disputed overlordship of Sardinia than they were in the first 
half of the thirteenth century ; and, albeit their star was begin- 

1 See p. 216 supra, and Otoboni Scribae Annates lanuenses, p. 54. The 
virtuous indignation of the annalist might lead us to suppose that the Genoese 
themselves were quite incapable of similar conduct; whereas, as a matter of 
fact, Guglielmo Porco, Guglielmo Grasso, Enrico Pescatore and Alamano 
da Costa were all of them pirates and all of them Genoese. So long as, officially 
speaking, there was peace between Genoa and Pisa, they seem to have been 
perfectly ready to enter into partnership with individual Pisans for the pur- 
pose of piratical enterprises. See Miiller, op. cit. pp. 428, 429, and on the 
whole subject Manfroni, op. cit. pp. 262 et seq. 

2 Volpe, op. cit. pp. 303, 304; Manfroni, op. cit. p. 262; Miiller, op. cit. t 
doc. xli, pp. 66, 67. 

3 Statuti inediti, 11 (Constitutum usus), pp. 989-991. The date is 1190. 

4 Otobono Scriba, op. cit. p. 64: " Pisani.. jecerunt quidem in longinquis 
partibus, videlicet in Siciliam et per alias partes, cur sales et pyratas suos, in 
quibus eorum spes sistit atque fiducia, querere supplicantes , ut ciuitati Pisane in 
tanto necessitatis articulo subuenirent." And after all, when we come to con- 
sider the matter impartially, were maritime conditions so very different in 
the England of the sixteenth century? Of the hundred and ninety-seven 
English ships which encountered the Spanish Armada only thirty-four were 
Queen's ships; and who shall say that Drake and Hawkins and Frobisher 
were other than pirates? (See J. R. Hale, The Story of the Great Armada, 
and particularly Appendix n.) 



268 FROM CONSULS TO POTESTA [ch. 

ning to pale in the light of Genoa's sun, they won a great naval 
victory over their rivals in 1241 , capturing and sinking more than 
two-thirds of the opposing fleet. In 1242 they forced the Geno- 
ese to abandon the siege of the revolted Savona, and in the 
following year they entered the harbour of Genoa itself and 
shot arrows tipped with silver into the city. They shared the 
glories of Montaperto 1 , 

lo strazio e il grande scempio 
Che fece Y Arbia colorata in rosso ; 
and in 1264 they helped to humble Lucca in the dust and drove 
the Florentine Guelfs from their last refuge in Tuscany. Even 
after the battle of Meloria (1284), when so many of their noblest 
and bravest had been carried into captivity that it became a 
common saying that "to see Pisa you must go to Genoa," they 
were still unconquered and unconquerable. In vain the other 
Tuscan nations gathered, yapping and snarling, like curs about 
a wounded lion, thinking to feast themselves upon the carcase. 
Under the wise leadership of Guido da Montefeltro, the Pisans 
recovered much of their military prestige 2 ; the coming of 
Henry VII, in 13 12, re-kindled all their old Imperial enthusi- 
asm; and, captained by Uguccione della Faggiuola, they broke 
the Florentines and their Guelf allies, Bolognesi, Sienese, Peru- 
gians, Romagnuols, Pratesi, Pistoiesi, Volteranni, Neapolitans, 
in the bloody battle of Montecatini (August, 13 15). The Torre 
della Fame was crowded with prisoners, and men's mouths 
were filled with blasphemies against the Almighty, who, they 
declared, had become the vassal of the conqueror: 
Eo non ti lodo Dio, e non ti adoro, 
e non ti prego, e non ti rengrazio, 
e non ti servo, ch' eo ne son phi sazio 
che 1' aneme di star en purgatorio, 

1 " ...li Pisani vi mandonno trecento nobili cavalieri pisani e buona somma 
di valenti pedoni eletti della citta e del contado." See C. Paoli, La Battaglia 
di Montaperti (Siena, Bargellini, 1869), p. 91. 

2 Ranieri Sardo, ubi cit. p. 92: "Dipo' questo tempo, Pisa racquisto tutta 
Maremma e Valdera e Collina e lo contado, per gran parte, e assai valoro- 
samente si difese per mare e per terra ; sicche bene pareano valente persone 
e buoni discepuli che aveano imparato dal buono maestro, cioe dal Conte 
Guido preditto, lo quale lassoe lo mundo, e diventoe frate Minore." See also 
the Cronica di Pisa, apud Muratori, R.I.S. xv, 983. 



xxi] FROM CONSULS TO POTESTA 269 

perche tu hai messi i guelfi a tal martoro 

ch' i ghibellini ne fan beffe e strazio. 

e se Uguccion ti comandasse il dazio 
tu e' pagaresti senza peremptoro 1 . 

If, however, Pisa was still warlike she was no longer free. In 
1328 she was compelled to submit to the signory of Castruccio 
Castracane, and, after his death, was misruled by a succession 
of petty tyrants, until, in 1399, she was ignominiously sold to 
the Visconti of Milan. Through all the last half of the fourteenth 
century, her eventual ruin became yearly more inevitable. 

Cervi, luporum praeda rapacium, 
Sectamur ultro quos opimus 

Fallere et effugere est triumphus. 

The end came in 1406, when she fell at last into the hands of 
Florence; but even slavery to Florence could not break her 
courage nor destroy her patriotism. She regained her inde- 
pendence in 1494, and, between 1499 and 1505, withstood three 
sieges and repulsed three attacking armies. Of these things I 
hope to write hereafter, if I shall so long live. 

1 Le Rime di Folgore da S. Gimignano (Bologna, Romagnoli, 1880), p. 56, 
Sonetto xxxiii. See also xxxi and xxxn. These last have been translated 
by D. G. Rossetti, The Early Italian Poets ("The Temple Classics" edition), 
PP- 74, 75- 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 

The following note on books is not intended as a complete 
bibliography , but simply as a list of the volumes existing in 
the private library of the Author and used by him in writing 
the foregoing pages. 

DOCUMENTS 

Statuti inediti delta Cittd di Pisa dal XII al XIV secolo, raccolti ed 
illustrati per cura del Prof. F. Bonaini. Firenze, Vieusseux, 
1 854-1 870. 3 vols. 

Raccolta di scelti Diplomi Pisani fatta dal Cav. F. Dal Borgo. Pisa, 
Giuseppe Pasqua, 1765. 

Bonaini, F., / Diplomi Pisani inediti col Regesto di tutte le Carte Pisane 
che si trovano a stampa. 

Together with the Indice generate, these Diplomi should have formed 
the third and last Part of the Istorie Pisane contained in Tom. vi of the 
Archivio Storico Italiano. Eventually, however, only 120 pages of 
them were printed, the collection ending with the privilege granted by 
Richard Cceur de Lion to the Pisans, in October, 1192. 

Santini, P., Documenti delV Antica Costituzione del Comune di Firenze. 

Firenze, Vieusseux, 1895. 
Miiller, G., Documenti suite relazioni delle Cittd Toscane coll Oriente 

Cristiano e coi Turchi fino all anno MD XXXI. Firenze, Tip. 

Cellini, 1879. 

The documents are illustrated by copious notes, citing all the 

authorities and giving long verbatim extracts from the chronicles. 

CHRONICLES 

Bernardi Marangonis Vetus Chronicon Pisanum, edited by Bonaini 
in the Archivio Storico Italiano, Serie 1, Tom. vi, Parte 11. 

Bernardo Marangone flourished in the twelfth century and himself 
took part in many of the events which he describes. Beginning with 
the year 1004, he gives us brief notices of the principal incidents in 
the history of Pisa up to 1136. From H36toii75he enters into much 
greater detail, and his chronicle is, perhaps, the most important Pisan 
source which we possess for that period. It was published by Muratori 
in the Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. vi; but the version edited by 
Bonaini is the better one. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 271 

Carmen in victoriam Pisanorum Genuensium aliorumque Italiensium de 
Timino Saracenorum rege, ducibus Benedicto, Petro, Sismundo, 
Lamberto, Glandulpho, de expugnatione urbium Sibilia et Madia 
die S. Xisti. Published in "Atti della Societa Ligure di Storia 
Patria," vol. iv (1867), under the editorship of L. T. Belgrano. 
It is a contemporary or almost contemporary narrative and evidently 
of Pisan authorship. See p. 34 supra. 

Liber Maiolichinus de gestis Pisanorum illustribus a cura di Prof. 
C. Calisse. Published by the Istituto Storico Italiano in "Fonti 
per la Storia d' Italia." Roma, 1904. 

As to the authorship of this poem, see pp. 58, 59 supra. 

-Sardo, Ranieri, Cronaca Pisana, in the Archivio Storico Italiano, 
Serie 1, Tom. vi, Parte 11. 

Cronica di Pisa, in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, XV. 

Annali Genovesi di Caffaro e de* suoi continuatori. Published by the 
Istituto Storico Italiano in "Fonti per la Storia d' Italia," vols. 
1-11. 

Vol. 1 (a cura di L. T. Belgrano) contains the Annates Ianuenses of 
Caffaro, together with his Ystoria captionis Almarie et Turtuose, De 
liber atione civitatum Orientis Liber, etc., and the Annates Ianuenses of 
Oberto Cancelliere; vol. II (a cura di L. T. Belgrano e di C. Imperiale 
di Sant' Angelo) those of Otobono Scriba, Ogerio Pane and Marchisio 
Scriba. 

Cronica Altinate in the Archivio Storico Italiano, Serie 1, Tom. vin. 

Cronique des Veniciens de Maistre Martin da Canal in the Archivio 
Storico Italiano, Serie 1, Tom. vin. 

Cronica Sanese in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Tom. xv. 

Ptolemaei Lucensis Annates. Published by the R. Deputazione sugli 
studi di Storia Patria per le Provincie di Toscana, dell' Umbria 
e delle Marche, vol. vi. 

Sanzanome Iudicis Gesta Florentinorum ab anno 11 25 ad annum 123 1. 
Florentine edition. 

Villani, Giovanni, Cronica (edizione Dragomanni). Firenze, Sansone 
Coen, 1845. 4 vols. 

Marchione di Coppo Stefani, Cronica Fiorentina a cura di N. Rodo- 
lico. Citta di Castello, Tip. Lapi, 1903. 



272 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 

HISTORICAL WORKS 

Amari, M., Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia. Firenze, Le Monnier, 
1 854-1 868. 3 vols. 

This is a work of great importance for the wars with the Saracens, 
the expulsion of Mogahid from Sardinia and the expeditions against 
Palermo and Mehdia. Largely based upon Moslem sources, it enables 
us to test the veracity of the Italian chroniclers. 

— Notizie delta impresa de y Pisani su le Baleari secondo le sorgenti 
arabiche, in the " Liber Maiolichinus," ubi supra. 

Ammirato, S., Istorie fiorentine. Firenze, Batelli e compagni, 1846- 
1849. 6 vols. 

Archer, J. A. and Kingsford, C. L., The Crusades. The Story of the 
Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. London, Fisher Unwin, 1899. 

Berlinghieri, D., Notizie degli Aldobrandeschi. Siena, O. Porri, 1842. 

Besta, E., La Sardegna Medioevale. Vol. 1, "Le vicende politiche dal 
450 al 1326"; vol. 11, "Le istituzioni politiche, economiche, 
giuridiche, sociali." Palermo, A. Reber, 1908-1909. 

A work of considerable importance to which I am largely indebted. 
It was reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement of 21st October, 1909, 
and in The Nation (New York) on the 9th of December of the same 
year. 

Butler, W. F., The Lombard Communes, A History of the Republics 
of North Italy. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1906. 

Carden, R. W., The City of Genoa. London, Methuen, 1908. 

Cecina, L. A., Notizie istoriche della Citta di Volterra. Volterra, Tip. 
Sborgi, 1900. 

This is a cheap reprint, lacking the learned notes which Cav. F. dal 
Borgo wrote for the original edition published in 1758. 

Dal Borgo, F., Dissertazioni sopra V Istoria Pisana. Pisa, Giovannelli, 
1761-1768. 

An extraordinarily readable book and based upon the best authorities. 
It was to illustrate this work that the author published his Raccolta di 
Scelti Diplomi Pisani, referred to above. 

Douglas, R. Langton, A History of Siena. London, Murray, 1902. 

Giachi, A. F., Saggio di Ricerche Storiche sopra lo Stato Antico e 
Moderno di Volterra. Volterra, Tip. Sborgi, 1887. 

Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 
Bonn's British Classics. 6 vols. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 273 

Gregorovius, F., Storia della Cittd di Roma nel Medio Evo. Roma, 
Societa Editrice Nazionale, 1900-1901. 4 vols. 

Guizot, F., The History of Civilization from the Fall of the Roman 
Empire to the French Revolution. English translation. Bell and 
Sons. 3 vols. 

Hegel, C, Storia della Costituzione dei Municipi Italiani dal Dominio 
Romano fino al cadere del Secolo XII. Milano, Guigoni, 1861. 

Hodgson, F. C, The Early History of Venice from the Foundation to 
the Conquest of Constantinople, a.d. 1204. London, Allen, 1901. 

Imperiale di Sant' Angelo, C, Caffaro e i suoi tempi. Torino, Roux, 
1894. 

Jamison, E., The Norman Administration of Apulia and Capua, more 
especially under Roger II and William /, 11 27-1 166. From the 
Papers of the British School at Rome, vol. vi, No. 6. 

Lanzani, F., Storia dei Comuni Italiani dalle Origini al 13 13 . Milano, 
Vallardi, 1882. 

Lusini, V., / confini storici del Vescovado di Siena in the Bullettino 
Senese di Storia Patria y vol. v et seq. 

Maffei, R., Storia Volterrana. Volterra, Tip. Sborgi, 1887. 

Main, A., I Pisani alle Prime Crociate. Livorno, Meucci, 1893. 

Malavolti, O., Historia de' Fatti e Guerre de y Sanesi. In Venetia, 
1599. 

Manfroni, C, Storia della Marina Italiana dalle Invasioni Bar- 
bariche al Trattato di Ninfeo (400-1261). Livorno, a cura della 
R. Accademia Xavale, 1899. 

Michaud, History of the Crusades. English translation. London, 
Routledge, 1852. 3 vols. 

Muratori, L., Annali d' Italia dal principio del era volgare, sino all* 
anno 1750. In Monaco, nella Stamperia di Agostino Olzati, 
1761-1764. 12 vols. 

Napier, H. E., Florentine History. London, Moxon, 1846-1847. 
6 vols. 

Reich, Emil, General History of Western Nations from 5000 B.C. to 
1900 a.d. London, Macmillan, 1908. Vols. 1 and 11. 

Roncioni, R., Belle Istorie Pisane, in the Archivio Storico Italiano, 
Serie 1, Tom. vi, Parte 1. 

h. . » 18 



274 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 

Rondoni, G., Sena Vetus o il Comune di Siena dalle Origini alia 
Battaglia di Montaperti. Torino, Fratelli Bocca, 1892. 

Ross, J. and Erichsen, N., The Story of Pisa. London, Dent, 1909. 
The Story of Lucca. London, Dent, 1912. The "Mediaeval 
Towns" Series. 

Salvi, Michel' Angelo, Delle Historie di Pistoia e Fazioni d? Italia. 
Roma, 1656. 3 vols. 

Santini, P., Studi sulV Antica Costituzione del Comune di Firenze, 
Contado e Politica Esteriore del Secolo XII, Estratto dall' Archivio 
Storico Italiano, Serie v, Tomi xxv-xxvi, anno 1900. Firenze, 
Tip. Galilleiana, 1901. 

The value of the work is enhanced by three excellent maps, i.e. 
(1) Confini del contado fiorentino nel secoli x-xm, (2) Feudi principali 
dei Conti e del Vescovado fiorentino nel contado e dintorni (Lee. xi- 
xni), and (3) Confine tra Firenze e Siena secondo il lodo del Potesta di 
Poggibonsi nel 1203. 

Sismondi, Storia delle Repubbliche Italiane dei Secoli di Mezzo. 
Milano, Pagnoni. 6 vols. 

Tommasi, Girolamo, Sommario della Storia di Lucca dall' anno MIV 
alV anno MDCC, being Tom. x of Serie 1 of the Archivio Storico 
Italiano. 

Tommasi, Giugurta, DelV Historie di Siena. In Venetia, 1626. 

Tronci, P., Annali Pisani, rifusi, arricchiti di moltifatti e seguitati fino 
all' anno 1839 da Valtancoli Montazio ed altri, 2 a edizione. 
Pisa, Angelo Valenti, 1868. 

This work contains many original documents. 

Villari, P., Le Invasioni Barbariche in Italia. Milano, Hoepli, 1901. 

— U Italia da Carlo Magno alia Morte di Arrigo VII. Milano, 
Hoepli, 1910. 

— I primi due secoli della Storia di Firenze , 2 a edizione. Firenze, 
Sansoni, 1898. 

Volpe, G., Pisa e i Longobardi, in Studi Storici. Periodico trimestrale 
diretto da Amadeo Crivellucci, vol. x, fasc. iv. Pisa, 1901. 

— Studi sulle Istituzioni Comunali a Pisa (Cittd e Contado, Consoli 
e Podesta), Sec. XII-XIII. Pisa, Tip. Successori Fratelli Nistri, 
1902. 

This is unquestionably the most important work which has been 
written in Pisa in modern times. So far as I know, it is the only book 
which deals at all adequately with the Communal institutions as a 
whole. My indebtedness to it is very great. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 275 

PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS 

Archivio Storico Italiano, Serie 1, Tomi i-xvi. 

These volumes constitute the whole of the First Series. A valuable 
account of their genesis and scope will be found in "L' Archivio Storico 
Italiano" e V opera cinquantenaria delta R. Deputazione Toscana di 
Storia P atria, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1916. See particularly the article 
of F. Baldasseroni, II primo ventennio deW "Archivio Storico Italiano" 
(Notizie e documenti), pp. 93-190. 

Bullettino Senese di Storia P atria. From 1894 to 19 16. 

Miscellanea Storica delta Vol d' Els a. From 1893 to 1899. 

Studi Storia, Periodico trimestrale diretto da Amedeo Crivellucci. 
Certain odd numbers. 

This periodical is published in Pisa and contains many important 
articles dealing with Pis an history. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Arias, G., / trattati commerciali della Repubblica Fiorentina. Firenze, 
successori Le Monnier, 1901. 

— Le Istituzioni Giuridiche Medievali nella Divina Commedia. 
Firenze, Lumachi, 1901, 

Balzani, U., Le Cronache Italiane nel Medio Evo. Milano, Ulrico 
Hoepli, 1 90 1. 

Burns, C. D., Political Ideals, their Nature and Development. Oxford 
University Press, 191 5. 

Da Morrona, A., Pisa illustrata nelle Arti del Disegno, 2 a edizione. 
Livorno, Marenghi, 18 12. 3 vols. 

Davis, H. W. C, Medieval Europe. London, Williams and Norgate. 

Del Vecchio, A., e Casanova, E., Le Rappresaglie nei Comuni Medievali 
e specialmente in Firenze, Saggio Storico. Bologna, Zanichelli, 
1894. 

Dennis, G., The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. "Everyman's 
Library "edition. 

Haskins, C. H., The Normans in European History. London, Con- 
stable, 191 6. 

Hutton, E., In Unknown Tuscany. London, Methuen, 1909. 

Jenks, E., Law and Politics in the Middle Ages. London, Murray, 
1912. 



276 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 

Keene, C. H., Rutilii Claudii Namatiani De Reditu Suo. Edited, 

with introduction and notes, critical and explanatory. London, 

Bell, 1907. 
Lisini, A., Prefazione al Costituto del Comune di Siena volgarizzato 

nel MCCCIX-MCCCX. Siena, Lazzeri, 1903. 
Muratori, Dissertazioni sopra le Antichitd Italiane. Milano, 1751. 

3 vols. 
Passerini, L., Le Armi dei Municipi Toscani. Firenze, Tip. Ducci, 

1864. 
Patetta, F., Le Ordalie, Studio di storia del diritto e scienza del diritto 

comparato. Torino, Fratelli Bocca, 1890. 
Repetti, E., Dizionario geografico fisico storico della Toscana. Firenze, 

1833-1846. 5 vols. 
Simoneschi, L., Della Vita Privata dei Pisani nel Medio Evo. Pisa, 

Tip. Citi, 1895. 
Solmi, A., Le Associazioni in Italia avanti le Origini del Comune. 

Saggio di Storia economica e giuridica. Modena, Societa Tipo- 

grafica, 1898. 
Tammasia, N., La famiglia italiana. Milano, Remo Sandron, 1910. 
Taylor, H. O., The Mediaeval Mind. London, Macmillan, 191 1. 

2 vols. 
Vigo, P., Unafestapopolare a Pisa nel Medio Evo. Pisa, Tip. Mariotti, 

1888. 
Volpe, G., Questioni fondamentali sulV origine e svolgimento dei 

Comuni Italiani (Lee. x-xiv). Pisa, Tip. Successori Fratelli 

Nistri, 1904. 
Zdekauer, L., Dissertazione sugli Statuti del Comune di Siena fi.no 

alia redazione delV Anno 1262, in "II Constitute del Comune 

di Siena dell' Anno 1262," pubblicato sotto gli auspici della 

Facolta Giuridica di Siena. Milano, Hoepli, 1897. 



INDEX 



Abbasid caliphs, 38 n. 

Abbazia, 167 

'Abd-al-Rahman, 20 

Abingdon, 235 

Abu-Abd-Allah al Mu'ayti, 20 

Abu-Ibn-Iusuf, emir of Morocco, 
82 

'Abu Rabiah (Burabe), 68 

Abu-Tamin-Mostanser-Billah, sol- 
dan of Egypt, 50 

Acaba, 31 n. 

Acquapendente, 91 n. 

Acre, 47, 52, 53, i«i "2, 114, 115, 
217 fL 

Admont, abbot of, 118 

Adriatic sea, 5 n., 15, 87, 102, 122, 
129, 216, 245, 248 

Africa, 5, 6, 15, 31, 34, 37, 38 n., 82, 
174, 245 

— north, 2, 34 n. 

— praefectus praetorio of, 17 

— precious metals in, 42 n. 

— Vandal kingdom of, 17 
African expedition of 1088, 11 
Agalbursa, wife of Barisone of Ar- 

borea, 147, 154, 216 
Agde, 186, 187 
Aghinolfi, fortress, 92 
Agnano, 186 
Aiaccio, diocese of, 79 
Aix-la-Chapelle, 117 
Alamano da Costa, 267 n. 
Albenga, 157, 172 
Albert of Aix, 53 
Alberti of Prato, the, 93 fL, 97, 98, 

101, 103, 105, 162, 201, 202, 213, 

229 
Alberto, count, 95, 124, 189, 193, 

211 

— di Barioco, 166 

— Gottifredo, bishop of Florence, 
95, 101, 102, 103 

— "Vicecomes major," 12 
Aldobrandeschi, the, 93 fL, 201, 233, 

252 

— of Soana, Ildebrandino degli, 
count, 131 

Aldobrandino, Scudocollo di, 264 
Aleppo, the Turk of, 32 



Aleria, diocese of, 79 

Alessandria, 195 

Alessandro di Telese, 85 

Alexander III, pope, 125, 126, 128, 
129, 135, 137, 146, 162, 164, 165, 
177, 184, 186, 188, 210, 212 

— IV, pope, 7 n. 

Alexandria, 31 n., 34 n., 112 fL, 

121 n., 174, 183, 225 
Alfeo, 265 

Alferoli, Raniero, consul, 149 
Alfonso, see Alphonso 
Algarve (Garbo), 175, 246 
Ali, son of Mogahid, 22 
Ali-ibn-Iusuf, 70 
Almalfi, 36 

Almansor ('Ibn-abi-'Amir), 19, 20 
al-Mansur of Tunis, 25 n. 
Almedia, see Mehdia 
Almeria, 82, 106 fL, 108 n., 146 
Almoravid Ali-ibn-Iusuf, 70 
Almyro, 57, 216 n. 
Alphonso I of Castile, 217 n., 218 n. 

— VI of Castile, 44 

— VII of Castile, 50 n. 

Alps, the, 21, 96, 124, 209, 212, 220 

Altopascio, 91 n. 

Amalfi and the Amalfitani, 18, 45, 

47, 77, 84, 85, 87, 88 
Amalric, count of Ascalon, 109, 112, 

114 
Amari, M., professor, 23 n.; Diplomi 

Arabiy 31, 44; Biblioteca Arabo- 

Sicula, 35 
America, 207 
Ampurias, count of, 65 
Anacletus, antipope, 78, 82, 83, 100 
Anagni, 125 

Anastasius IV, pope, 121 
Ancona, 5 n., 129, 183, 184, 204, 

216 n. 

— the march of, 105, 137 
Anfossi, Bulgarino, consul, 184, 186 
Angelus, Isaac, emperor, 219 
Anglo-Scottish frontier, 32, 33 
Annales lanuenses, 227 n. 
Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, 

91 n. 
Antenora, 261 



278 



INDEX 



Antioch, 47, 115 

— San Salvator, 53 
Anziani of Pisa, the, 1 1 1 
Apennines, the, 253 

Apulia, 5 n., 49, 117, 121, 122, 130, 

221 
Aqui, 206 

Aquileia, patriarch of, 209 
Arabs, the, 31 
Aragon, 147, 183 
Arbia, river, 94 n. 
Arborea, 148, 153, 206 

— comita of, 144 

— judges and judgeship of, 143, 

145, 175 
Arcolento, 152, 154 
Aretines, the, 234 
Arezzo, 77 n., 99, 158 n., 229 

— bishop of, 89, 99 

— count of, 213 
Arias, G., professor, 261 
Arizica, 115 

Aries, 65 

Armatori, 11, 53, 235 ff., 248, 251, 

254, 262, 265, 266 
Arno, river, 1, 2 n., 15, 30, 61, 62, 

69, 73, 78, 82, 92, 97, 138, 143, 

185 n., 192, 194, 200, 201, 22i, 

246, 247, 252, 260 
Arnulf, bishop of Lisieux, 107 

— patriarch of Jerusalem, 50 
Arnus, the, 1, 3 

Arrengo, see Parlamentum 

Arrigo Testa, 220 

Arsuf, 52 

Arsula, 190 

Arte della Lana, 246, 251, 258, 265 

Arti, the, 11, 244, 246 ff., 255, 258, 

259, 262 
Ascalon, 218, 219 

— count of, 109 

Asciano, 179, 187, 205, 207, 254 

Asia, 47 

Asinara, 170 

Asinaria, gulf of, 63 

Assisi, 209 n. 

Assopardi, 265 

Asti, 120 

Athen, family of the, 143, 144 

Atlantic ocean, 31 n. 

Atrani, 85, 87 

Aucassin, 172 n. 

Ausar, the, 1, 3 

Austrians, 231 

Aversa, 84 

Awocato, Giovanni, 224 

— Rolando, 149, 174 



Babylon, 56, 113 n. 

Bagni di Monte Pisano, 178 

Baida, village of, 28 

Balance of Power, maintenance of 

the, 155 
Baldericus, archbishop, 47 
Balduino (Balduinus), archbishop of 

Pisa, 105, 145, 245 n. 
Baldwin I, 53, 266 

— II, 108 

— Ill, 108, 112, 114 n. 

— IV, 114 

Balearic expedition and war, 11, 53, 
59, 95, 143 

— islands, 1, 20, 58,67,70,72,73 m 
Balhara (Monreale), 28 

Balia, 9, 60, 237, 239, 265, 267 

Ball, John, n8n. 

Ban of the Empire, 197 ff., 201 

Barbagia, 21 n. 

Barbarian invasions, 3, 8 

Barbaririni, the, 21, 23 n. 

Barbarossa, Frederick, emperor, 7 n., 
12, 92 n., 99 n., 106, 117 ff., 134, 
136 ff., 141, 142, 146, 148, 149, 
151, 152, 155, 158, 160 ff.. 165, 
170, 177, 179 ff-, 195, 198, 199, 

204, 208 ff., 212 ff., 217, 220, 
222, 235 n., 247, 262 

Barbary, 38 n. 

Barbialla, 130 

Barca, 31 n. 

Barcelona, 64 n., 66, 67, 193 

— count of, 58, 61 n., 64, 67, 70 
Bari, 5 n., 45, 122 

Barisone, 74 

— son of Torbeno, 147 

— of Arborea, 146 ff., 151 ff., 170, 

205, 216 

— of Torres (Logudoro), 32, 147, 

155 
Basso, viscount of, 147 
Bastia (Torre Benni), 130 
Bavaria, duke and duchy of, 100 ff., 

117 

— the Guelfs of, 117 
Bayeux tapestry, 192 n. 
Beatrice, countess, 31 
Beaucaire, 172 
Becket, Thomas, 163 n. 
Bedouins, the, 38 
Belforte, 93 
Belgium, 181 
Belisarius, 17 
Bellomi, the, 260 
Benedict VIII, pope, 21 
Benedictine monks, 32 



INDEX 



279 



Benedictus, papal legate, 43 
Benevento, 96 

Beni Meimum, tribe of the, 82 
Benincasa, canon of S. Maria Mag- 

giore and archbishop, 165, 169, 

188 
Berber generals, 20 
Bergamo, congress of, 184 
Bernard, S., of Clairvaux, 82, 83, 87 
Besci (Besciolini), 231 
Besta, E., professor, 143 
Bethlehem, 49 
Beyrout, 47 
Beziers, 65 
Bientina, 253 
Bigotto of Lodi, 149 
Biserno, 254, 260 
Black sea (the Euxine), 16, 245 
Blanes, 64 

Bobbio, bishop of, 79 
Bocca d' Arno, 74 

— degli Abati, 261 
Bocci, 260 
Bohemond, 49, 54 

Bologna and the Bolognesi, 94, 120, 

220, 268 
Bolsena, gin. 
Bona, 26, 115 

Bonaccorso, consul, 138, 139, 140 
Bonaini, F., 141 
Bonannus, architect, 205 
Bongars, collection of, 53 n. 
Boni homines, 10 
Bonifacio, fortress of, 216, 266 

— di Tegrimo, 98 
Bonifazio, count of Lucca, 5 
Bonone, Lamberto, 251 
Bononi, Uguccione, 182 
Borgo a Moriano, 214 

— S. Donnino, 212 

— S. Genesio, 103, 161, 197, 199, 
200, 228 

diet of, 127, 201 

— S. Michele, 156 

— S. Paolo, 245 

— S. Sepolcro, 104 n. 
Bosove, 144 
Bosphorus, the, 47 
Bottacio, ambassador, 56 n. 
Bozzano, 203 

Breve Compagne, 240 

— Consulum, 48 n., 170 n., 194, 
239, 240, 248 

Pisanae Civitatis, 151 

— delV Arte della Lana, 246, 247 

— Pisani Communis , 238, 239 

— Populi, 194, 240, 241 



Brevi, 238 ff., 248, 263 

Breviarium, the, 15 n., 60 n., 225, 

226 
Brindisi, 45 

— battle of, 122 
Brugnato, bishop of, 79 
Bugia, 31 n., 115, 174 
Bulsus quondam Petri, 264 
Buonaggiunta, the Treguano, 168 
Buonconvento, 91 n. 
Buondelmonti, the, 101 

Burdino (Gregory VIII), antipope, 

96 ff. 
Burgense, consul, 113, 183 
Burgundi, Gaytanus, 264 
Burgundy, 6 

— duke of, 218 
Buriano, 130, 254 
Bury St Edmunds, 235 
Buti, 254 

Byblos (Gibellet), 52 
Byzantine empire, 54 
Byzantium, 17, 128 

Cabras, 148, 153 

Cadolinghi, the, 211, 253 

Caesarea, 52, 115 

Cafaggio, 167, 168 

Caffaro, 44, 52, 72.fi., 78, 79, 87, 

129, 134 ff-, 140, 1 4 I > 148 n., 

171 n., 172 n. 
Cagliari, 17, 79, 115, 145, 148, 153, 

154, 175, 180, 232 

— archbishop of, 64 

— judge and judgeship of, 134, 
143, 150, 153, 155, 180, 216 

Cagliaritano, the, 20, 147, 206 
Caifa, fall of, 52 
Cairo, 113, 114 
Calabria, 15, 130, 136, 221 
Calais Pale, the, 104 n. 
Calcinaia, 203, 253 
Caldera, the, 60 
Caliphate, fall of the, 20 
Calisse, C, professor, 2 n. 
Calixtus II, pope, 74, 75, 78, 97, 98, 
100 

— Ill, antipope, 210 
Campagna, the, 83, 164 
Campagnatico, 93 
Campania, coast of, 87 
Campi, 213, 254 
Campiano, 98 
Campo Santo, 254 n. 
Cancelliere (Nasello), Oberto, 141 n., 

148 n., 149 n., 150, 171 ff., 177, 
192 



280 



INDEX 



Canneto, 130 

Canossa, 96 

Capannori, 254 

Capanoli, 206 

" Capitanei," 246, 258 

Capitaneus, Berenhardus, 264, 265 

Capocaccia {Caput Album), 61 n., 63, 

64, 175 
Capo Corso (Cap Corse, Caput 

Corsi), 139, 172 
Capraia, island, 63, 138 
Capri, 223 
Caprona and Capronesi, 253 fL, 

Capua, prince and principality of, 
18, 84, 122, 130, 221 

Caput Album, see Capocaccia 

Carletti, 265 

Carlovingians, 9 

Carmen in victoria Pisanorum, 35 

Caronia, 28 n. 

" Carta sarda," 9 

Carthage, 5, 23 n., 26, 27 

Carthaginians, expulsion from Sar- 
dinia, 17 

Cascina, 254 

Casentino of Arezzo, 94 

Cass arum, the, 39, 41 

Castagneto, count of, 254 

— Tedicio di, 220, 264 
Castel del Bosco, 234 

— d' Erio in La Nurra, 144 

— di Castro, 232 

— Fiorentino, 201, 202 
Castellarano, 211 
Castiglione, 176 

— Mondiglio (Castiglioncello di 
Rosignano), 176 n. 

Castracane, Castruccio, 269 
Castrogiovanni, 5 n. 
Castrum Corniae, 130 

— Pavae (Pieve a Pitti), 132 
Catalonia, 58, 64, 66, 67 
Catalonian allies, 65 
Cattani, 60, 93 

Cecilia, countess, 253 

Cecina, 93 

Celestine III, pope, 222 

Cephalonia, island, 49 

Cerami, battle of, 27 

Cerchi, the, 257 

Cerreto, 206 

Certaldo, 91 n., 229 

Ceuli, 206, 254 

Ceuta, 170, 225 

Charlemagne, 5 

Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 32 n. 



Chevy Chase, ballad of, 35 

Chieri, 120 

Chiesa Maggiore, 215 

Chiusa d' Adige, 86 

Chiusi, 158 n. 

Christian, archbishop of Mayence, 

155, 162 ff., 184, 195 ff., 207 ff., 

252 

— captives, 33, 39, 42, 58, 59, 68 

— churches, booty from, 68 

— fleets, 22, 53 

— merchants, 113 
Christians, the, 31, 50, 67, 68, 114 
Chrysobulum (Golden Bull), of 

Alexius, 54 ft. 
Churches — 

Cathedral of Our Lady, St Mary, 
24 n., 29 

S. Agnese, Mortennano, 104 

S. Cristoforo, 228 

S. Frediano, 244 

S. Lorenzo, Genoa, 135, 188 

S. Michele in Borgo, 244 

S. Nicolas, Laodicea, 53 

S. Nicolo, Constantinople, 56 n. 
— di Trullas, 144 

S. Paolo a Ripa d' Arno, 244 

S. Piero in Vinculis, 244 

S. Pietro, Constantinople, 56 n. 

S. Prospero in Seturiano, 210 

S. Sepolcro, 244 

S. Siro, Pavia, 149 

S. Sisto in Cortevecchia, 43 

S. Victor, Marseilles, 69 

S. Vito suir Arno, 61, 259 
Ciconia, Odimondo, 251 
Cinzica (Kinzica), 15, 145, 245, 247, 

r- 254 

Cisa pass, 91 n. 

Civitavecchia, 80, 130, 177, 184, 198 

Clairvaux, abbey of, 146 

Clement III, pope, 217, 222 

Clermont, council of, 46 

Cocco, ambassador, 56 

Colle, 232 

— di Val d* Elsa, 94, 202 
Colline, judicial district of, 265 

— Livornesi, 167 
Colloquium Civitatis, 10 
Cologne, 218 n. 

— archbishop of, 106, 132, 158, 
161, 188 n., 209 

Colonies of Pisa, 107 ff. 
Colonna, Pietro, 35 
Columbretes, the, 67 
Comacchio, 5 
Comes teutonicus, 213 



INDEX 



281 



Comita of Arborea, 144 ff. 

— de Spanu, 144 
"Comites de mare," 265, 267 
Commune Consilium of Sapientes, 10 
Communes, 7 ff., 12 ff., 48, 52, 60, 

71, 80, 164, 166 ff., 172, 178, 
186, 188, 193, 19s ff-, 199, 200, 
203, 207, 209 ff., 214 ff., 226, 
230, 232, 235 ff., 241, 243 ff., 
247 ff., 256 ff., 260 ff., 267 
Comnenus, Alexius, emperor, 49, 51, 

52, 54 ff- 

— John, emperor, 86 

— Manuel, emperor, 121, 122, 128, 
129, 183, 195, 196 

Como, 77 

Companies of Adventure, 178, 266 

Conrad II, emperor, 7 n., 26, 245 n. 

— Ill of Hohenstaufen, emperor, 
99 n., 103, 106, 107, 123, 177 

— of Liizelhard, 214 

— of Montferrat, in, 210, 216, 
218 

— bishop of Spires, 170, 233 

— marquis of Tuscany, 97 ff . 
Consiliarii, 242 
Consorteria, 12, 255 ff. 
Constantia of Sicily, 212 
Constantino of Cagliari, 147 
Constantinople, 17, 18, 36 n., 54 ff., 

86, 123, 128, 137 ff., 146, 195, 
219, 245, 257 n. 

— Hippodrome, 55 

— Pisan church of S. Nicolo, 56 n. 
S. Pietro, 56 n. 

— S. Sophia, 55 

Constitutio de feudorum distractione, 
102 

— pacts, the, 132 n. 
Constitutum Legis, 250 

— Usus, 250 

Consul of Justice (Consul justitiae), 

250 
Consular College, 11, 239, 243, 249, 

250, 262 ff. 
Consules Artis Lane, 247, 251, 265 

— majores de Comuni, 245, 248, 

251 

— Maris, 265 

— mercatorum, 245, 248, 250, 251, 
265 

Consuls, 235 ff., 255, 258, 262 ff. 

Coparia, 55 

Cordova, caliph and caliphate of, 

19 n., 20 
Cornetani, peace with the, 240 n. 
Corneto, 263 



Cornino, count of, 254 

Corsica, 4, 5, 17, 23 n., 45, 61, 63, 
70, 72 ff., 76 ff., 81, 107, 121 n., 
145, 146, 151, 172, 174, 176, 203, 
216, 221, 254 

— bishops of, 75 

— vicariate of, 24 
Cortevecchia, Gherardo, 251 
Corvaja, fortress, 188, 191 
Corvara, 61, 92, 254 

— "cattani of," 263 

— Veltrus de, 254 n. 
Cospaia, republic of, 104 n. 
Costantia, wife of Raynald of An- 

tioch, 108 
Costantino, judge of Cagliari, 134 

— judge of Torres, 63, 143 
Court of Arbitration, 80 
Courts of Justice, 109 
Cremona, 7, 86 

— congress of, 184 
Cronaca Pis ana, 171 n. 
Cronica Altinate, 216 
Cross, the, 79, 107, 217, 219 

— armies of the, 47 

— enemies of the, 58 
Croyland, abbot of, 34 n. 
Crusade, First, 45, 46, 52, 58 

— Third, 218, 219 

Crusades and the Crusaders, 15, 43, 

44, 51, 67, 218 n., 237 
Cugnano, 167 

Curia, 60, 74, 78, 180 ff., 205 
Curopalata, the imperial, 54 
Cyprus, 218 

Daibert, archbishop, 12, 45 ff., 60, 
115, 235, 244 

— bishop, Concordia, 7 n., 10 
Damiano, canon of Lucca, 206 
Damietta, 114 

Dante, 41 n., 255 n., 261 
Danube, river, 57 n. 
Da Parlascio, the, 60 
Dartmouth, 218 n. 
da Scorno, Gherardo, 251 
Denia, 20, 22, 134 

— moslems of, 67 

de Vitry, Jacques, 112 n. 
Dinan, 192 
Dol, 192 n. 
Donoratico, count of, 254 

— Tedice di, 147 
d' Oria, Branca, 261 
Doria, Guglielmo, 149 
Dragut-Reis, pirate, 34 n, 
Drake, Sir Francis, 267 n. 

18—5 



282 



INDEX 



Duera, 261 

Dugento, the, 19 n., 265 

Duodi, family of, 259, 260, 265 

— Teperto, consul, 184, 204 
Durbino, 63 n. 

Eastern empire, 52, 195 
Ebriaci, family of the, 147 

— Gainello degli, 153 

— Ugone di Pagano, 144 
Ebro, river, 67 

Edessa, 107 

Edrisi, 28 n. 

Edward I of England, 23 n. 

Egypt, 38 n., 112 ff. 

— sultan or soldan, 50, 121 
Elba, island, 63, 174, 176, 188 
Elis, 1 

Elizabeth, queen of England, 266 

Emendatori, 238, 239 

Empoli, 97, 130 

Engelbert, abbot of Admont, 118 

— (Ingilbert), envoy, 100 ff. 
England and the English, 79, 107, 

119, 192, 209, 217, 218, 232 n., 

266, 267 n. 
English corsairs, 266 
Enrico di Montemagno, 167 
Era, river, 252, 253 
Ermengard, viscountess, 172 
Eugenius III, pope, 107, 117, 123 n., 

145, 146 
Euxine, the, 16, 245 
Evola, river, 130 

Fdbri, 235, 244 
Faenza, 94 
Fagiano, 254 
Falco, 88 

— di Castello, 149, 174 
Familiati, the, 60 
Fano, 148 

Fatimites, the, 38 n. 

Ferrara, 248 

Fiesolan- Florentine territory, 94 

Fiesole, 98, 99, 207, 213 

Firidolfi, the, 202 n. 

Flaminga, fortress, 188 

Flemcen, emir of, 82 

Flemings, 218 n. 

Florence and the Florentines, 61, 66, 
68, 71, 77 n., 92, 94 ff., 122 ff., 
127, 158 n., 178, 189, 193 ff., 197, 
199 ff., 205, 207 ff., 220, 227 ff., 
240, 261, 263, 268, 269 

— bishop of, 95, 105, 128, 202 n., 
213 



Florence (cont.) 

— cathedral chapter of, 98 

— commune of, 132 

— S. Giovanni of, 215 
Fondi, 5 n. 

Forcoli (Forculi), 206, 254 

Forfait, engineer, 175 n. 

Forll, 94 

Forum Traianum, 17 

Fostat (Babilonia), 114 

Fourques (Furcas), 172 

France and the French, 56, 58, 79, 

100, 107, 115, 125, 209, 217, 245, 

246, 248 
Franconia, duke of, 103 
Frangipane, Leone, 75 
Frangipani, the, 184 
Frankfurt, diet of, 117 
Frankfurt-on-Main, 155 
Frankish period, 89 
Frassineto, 5 
Fratta, 85, 87 
Frederick I, emperor, see Barbarossa 

— II, emperor, 233 

— of Hohenstaufen, first duke of 
Suabia, 99 n. 

second duke of Suabia, 99, 

117 
Frejus, 115, 188 
Frobisher, Sir Martin, 267 n. 
Fucci, Vanni, 261 
Fucecchio, 92, 101, 102 
Fumi, professor, 9 
Fuoriporta, 247, 254 

Gabes, gulf of, 33, 86 n. 

Gaeta, 5 n., 32, 130, 180, 221, 223 

Gaetani, the, 258 ff., 265 

— Raniero, 214, 227, 264 
Gaido Maimone, the, 82 
Gainello degli Ebriaci, 153 
Galata, 54 

— bridge, 55 
Galli, the, 260 
Gallia Narbonensis, 65 

Gallura, judge and judgeship of, 143, 

144, 155, 206 
Gambella, Ithoccor, 143 
Garbo (Algarve), 175, 246 
Garfagnana, the, 92, 93, 106, 124, 

188, 189, 191, 203, 211, 246, 253 
Gastaldi, and the Gastaldato, n, 13 
Gatti, 62, 73 n. 
Gaulo (Golo), river, 72 
Gavi, marquis of, 182 
Gelasius II, pope, 70 ff., 74, 79, 

143 



INDEX 



283 



Gennargentu, M., 21 

Genoa and the Genoese, 4 ff., 15, 17, 
21 ff., 27, 30, 31, 34, 36, 42, 44, 
45, 48, 50 ff., 55, 57, 61, 63, 64, 
66, 71 ff-, 87, 88, 93, 106, 107, 
113, 120 ff., 124, 129, 130, 134 ff., 
160, 164, 170 ff., 195 ff., 203 ff., 
216 ff., 221 ff., 232, 237, 241, 
247, 251, 254, 257 n., 261, 264, 
266 ff. 

— bishops and see of, 79, 151, 188 

— cathedral church of S. Lorenzo, 
135, 188 

— Liber hirium of, 53 

— treaty of 1150, 240 n. 
Gerbert of Aurillac, monk, 16 
Germany and the Germans, 85, 96, 

97, 100, 102, 103, 117, 119, 124, 
151, 158, 159, 162, 165, 184, 200, 
207, 209, 210, 212, 214, 218 n., 
222, 223, 245 

— emperors of, 7, 150, 155, 181 
Gertrude of Supplinburg, 100 
Gesta Francorum, 53 
Gherardesca, house of, 189, 202, 220, 

230, 252, 253, 262 ff. 

— Gherardo, count, 126, 204, 209, 
262, 263 

— Tedecio, 230 
Gherardo, bishop, 9, 12 

— da Scorno, 251 
Ghibellines, 81, 233, 234, 256 
Gianni de' Soldanieri, 261 
Gibellet (Byblos), 52 
Giglio, island of, 32 

Gildo, rebel, 2 
Gionata da Campo, 149 
Giudicato di Cagliari, 63 n. 

— Torritano, the, 63 
Giulio, bishop of Florence, 128 
Goceano, fortress of, 144 
Godfrey of Bouillon, 34 n., 49, 51 
Golden Bull (Chrysobulum), 54 ff. 

— Horn, the, 54 
Golo (Gaulo), river, 72 
Gonnario, judge of Torres, 143 ff. 
Gorgona, island of, 163, 166, 260 
Gottifredo, bishop of Florence, 95, 

101 ff., 105 

— degli Alberti, 98 
Grasso, family of, 265 

— Guglielmo, 267 n. 
Greco-Venetian fleet, 5 

Greece and the Greeks, 49, 56, 58, 

137, 183, 184, 215 
Greek emperors, 45 

— envoys, 106 



Gregory the Great, pope, 3 ; Epis- 
tolae, 23 n. 

— VII, pope, 8, 24 

— VIII, antipope, 96 ff. ; pope, 217 
Grillo, Amico, consul. 171 
Grosseto, 79, 93 

Grotti, Ugo, 233 
Grugni, Ruperto, 204 
Gualandi, the, 60, 258, 260 
Gualdanus comes Volterranorum. 133, 

158 n. 
Gualfredo, bishop, 77 n. 
Gualtiero of Ravenna, 75 
Guastalla, 86 
Guelf, count (marquis), 117, 121, 

127, 134 

— duke of Bavaria, 100 

— wars of, 81 

— league, 228 

Guelfs, the, 117, 223, 256, 268 
Guercio, Baldovino, 176, 177 

— Guglielmo, 257 n. 

Guerra, Guido, count, 94, 102, 105, 

123, 124, 127 
Gueta, archon of, 18 
Guida da Montefeltro, 268 
Guidi, the, 93, 94, 97 ff., 105, 106, 

162, 211, 213, 229 
Guido, count, 98, 99, 193, 201, 202, 

204, 210, 233, 253 

— the Old, count, 94 

— Imellia, 99 

— of Crema, see Paschal III 

— of Lodi, 149 
Guiscard, Robert, 27, 45 

— Roger, 28, 35 n. 
Gunali, Ithoccor de, 144, 145 
Gusmari, the, 259 

Guy de Lusignan, 217, 218 

Hadrian IV, pope, 121, 122, 124, 

125, 127 
Hague conventions, 80 
Hammamet, gulf of, 33 
Hawkins, Sir John, 267 n. 
Heinrich von Poppenheim, 220 
Helen of Troy, 16 
Henricus presbiter plebanus, 59 

— teutonicus, comes florentinus, 213 
Henry II, emperor, 26 n. 

— IV, emperor, 8, 10 

— V, emperor, 69, 95, 96, 98 ff., 
103 

— VI, emperor, 7 n., 212 ff., 
219 ff., 226 ff. 

— VII, emperor, 268 

— duke of Bavaria, 100 ff. 



284 INDEX 



Henry (cont.) 

— of Champagne, 219 

— the Lion, 117, 220 

— the Proud, 100 
Hercules, pillars of, 116 
Hobbes, Thomas, 244 
Hohenstaufen, family of, 99, 100, 

117, 127 
Holy city, the, 48, 50, 185 

— land, the, 135 

— sepulchre, the, 46, 146, 216 

— war, the, 64, 112 
Honorius II, pope, 78, 79, 100 
Hudson's bay, 245 

Hugh of Provence, 6 n. 
Huguenot corsairs, 266 
Hungarian slaves, 19 n. 
Hungary, 57 n., 209 

ibn-Abi-Korasan of Tunis, 25 n. 
ibn-Ali, prince of the Balearic 

islands, 25 n. 
ibn-Sahid of Valencia, 25 n. 
Ildebrandino of Soana, count, 95, 

189, 193, 198, 201, 203, 246 11. 
Ildebrando di Ranuccio Janni, 149, 

151 
Ildeprando, consul, 206 
Imellia, countess, 123 
Imperial curia, see Curia 

— diplomas, 164, 249, 250, 264 

— judices, 250 

— legate, 195, 197 ff., 201, 202, 
204, 210 

— vicars, 96 

Ingilbert (Engelbert), envoy, 100 ff. 
Innocent II, pope, 57, 78 ff., 88, 100 
Ionian islands, 51, 52 

— sea, 58 
Irapani, 130 

Ischia, island, 85, 87, 171, 223 
Italian merchants, 35 

in Syria, no, 112 

Italy and the Italians, 22, 38, 49, 64, 

79, 83, 98, 119, 131, 199, 209, 

212, 214, 215, 219 

— central, 61, 164, 183, 197, 217, 
228 

— southern, 5, 122, 223, 237 

— coasts of, 21, 81 

— currency of Pisan money in, 177 

— defence of, 18 

— descent of Henry V into, 95 

Lothair into, 85, 86, 99, 101 

Frederick into, 106, 262 

— return of Frederick to, 142, 165, 
180 



Italy {cont.) 

— flight of Frederick from, 186 

— imperial authority in, 121, 146 
legate of, 195 

— kings of, 117 

— maritime cities of, 31, 266 

— trading communities of, 43 
Ithoccor de Gunali, 144, 145 
Iudex, Iordanus, 264 
Iudicatus, 18 

Iviza, town, 67 

Jacopo of the Ghibelline faction, 256 

Jacques de Vitry, 112 n. 

Jaffa, 34 n., 48, 51, 52, 109, T15 

Jerba, island, 86 n. 

Jeremiah, prophet, 226 

Jericho, 44 

Jerusalem, 16, 47, 48, 50, 51, 114, 

115 

— king and kingdom of, 112, 121 n., 
218, 219 

— patriarch of, 50, 109, 115 n. 
John, S., the Divine, 56 
Judex, 147 n. 

Justice, courts of, 109, 250 
Justinian, 17 

Khalesa, the, 28 
Konigsberg, Anselmus of, 213 

Laccon, Mariano de', 9 
Landolfo, bishop, 25 
Lanfranchi, the, 60, 258 
Lanfreducci, the, 260 
La Nurra, 144 
Laodicea, 47, 49 ff., 53, 115 

— church of S. Nicolas, 53 
Lateran council, first, 75 

— palace, 45, 165 
League of nations, 80 
Leghorn, 2n., 128 
Legnano, battle of, 208 
Leo of Ostia, 32 
Leone, Pier di, 75 

Leopold of Austria, count, 209 

Lerici, 174 . n. 

Leucadia, island, 49 

Levant, the, 15, 34, 45, 52, 58, 

245 
Levanto, 173 
Lewis II, s n. 
Lex scripta, 238 
Liber Iurium of Genoa, 53 

— Maiolichinus, 22, 58, 59, 61 n., 

67 
Li£ge, 100 






INDEX 



285 



Ligurian coast, 93 

— sea, 6, 69, 172, 188 
Ligurians, 6 

Lipari islands, 26 
Lisbon, 217 n. 
Liutprand, 4 

Livomesi, the Colline, 167 
Livorno, 69 

Lodi, 160, 165, 180, 183 
Logudoro, see Torres 
Lombard communes, 100 

— league, 184, 186, 197, 228 
Lombardi, the, 93 

Lombardy and the Lombards, 61, 
102, 105, 120, 123, 137, 158, 160, 
162, 182, 184, 193, 195, 204, 211, 
248 

Longo Sardo, 153 

Longobard law, 250 

— period, 89 

Longobards, 3, 4, 8, nn. ; 13, 

235 n. 
Lothair of Supplinburg and Saxony, 

emperor, 7 n., 79, 81, 83 ff., 

87 n., 88, 99 ff., 120 
Louis VII of France, 107 

— the Pious, 121 n. 

Lucca and the Lucchesi, 5, 7, 13, 14, 
61, 65, 66, 71, 76, 77, 86, 89 ff., 
95, 98, 99, 101 ff., 105 ff., 113, 
120, 122, 124, 125, 127, 128, 159, 
161, 162, 177 ff., 185 ff., 196 ff., 
205, 206, 209 ff., 214, 220, 227, 
228, 230, 239 n., 253, 254, 268 

— bishop of, 92 n., 101, 188, 201 n., 
206 

Lucius III, pope, 210 
Luitprand, bishop of Cremona, 7 
Luiza, island, 67 
Lunata, the, 202 
Luni, city, 21, 91 n. 

— forests of, 61 
Lunigiana, 91 n., 92, 93 
Lyon, 91 n. 

Macharius of S. Miniato, count, 

197, 200, 205, 207, 209 
Magdeburg, archbishop of, 209 
Maghreb, 31 
Magnati, the, 241 
Magra, the, 6 
Mahan, captain, 72 n. 
Mahdfya, see Mehdia 
Major Ecclesia, 56 
Majorca, 58, 59, 66, 67, 69, 70, 147 

— epitaph of the queen of, 69 

— king of, 204 



Malaspina, the, 204 

— marquis, 173, 209 
Malaterra, Historia Sicula, 35 
Malavolti, Filippo, 217 
Malincasa (see also Benincasa), 188 
Malta, 86 n. 

Manfroni, C, professor, 86, 87, 136, 
227 

Mangona, 211, 229 

Marangone, Bernardo, 14, 17, 22, 
26, 29, 30, 35, 73, 84, 85, 88, 95, 
101, 106, 113, 123, 124, 127, 133, 
140 ff., 151, 154, 160, 163, 172, 
173, 175, 179, 184, 193 ff., 197, 
203, 205, 225, 245 

March, the, 105, 137, 160, 178 

Maremma, the, 72, 91, 93, 94, 133, 
198, 203, 246, 252 

— Massetana, 94 

Margaritus, "the King of the Sea," 

220, 222, 224, 226 
Margravate, dissolution of the, 158 
Mariana, bishop of, 79 
Mariano II, 63 n. 

— of Torres, 24 n., 25, 63 
Mark, cities and vassals of the, 127 
Markwald of Anweiler, 224, 226 
Marmilla, 152 

Marseilles, 2, 66, 69, 205 

— church of S . Victor, 69 
Marti nella Valle, 253 
Marturensi, the, 123, 233 
Marturi, see Poggibonsi 
Marzials, Sir Frank, 56 n. 
Marzucco di Gaetano, 166 
Masca, Stefano, 251 
Mascezel, 2 

Massa, 178, 221 

Matapan, cape, 49 

Matilda, countess, 10, 31, 45, 94 ff., 

100, 103, 121 n., 214 
Mauretania, 17 
Mayence, archbishop of, 155, 162, 

181, 182, 208, 209 
Mazzara, 130, 221 

Medici, Cosimo de', grand duke, 231 
Mediterranean sea, 15, 26, 31, 32, 

34, 43, 45, 54, 58, 86, 146, 222, 

266 
Mehdia (Almedia, Mahdiya), 26 ff., 

32 ff., 34 n., 35 n., 38, 39, 42, 

43, 56 
Mele, Gualfredo, 251 
Meloria, battle of, 72, 268 
Mercatanti y the, 258 
Mesimerius, Basileus (imperial Curo- 

palata), 54 



286 



INDEX 



Messina, 5 n., 27, 115, 130, 136, 165, 
217, 221, 223, 224, 226 

— battle of, 226, 227 

— straits of, 34 
Metz, 107 

Milan and the Milanesi, 77, 82, 120, 
212, 248, 269 

— archbishop of, 129 

— dukes of, 178 

— siege and fall of, 125, 129, 135, 
136 

Milazzo, 28 n. 

Miliano, pievi of, 206 

Minorca, 64 

Mobascer, emir, 67, 68 

Modani, family of, 265 

Moezz-ibn-Badis, 26, 27, 38 n. 

Mogahid-ibn-Abd-Allah (Mugetto, 
Musaitus, Musetto), 15 n., 17, 
19, 20, 22, 23, 26, 58, 138, 151, 
180 

Monaco, 136 

Monreale, see BaiharH 

Montalcino, 212 n. 

Montaperto, 268 

Monte Amiata, 93 

Monte Bicchieri, 252 

Montebuono, 101 

Montecalvoli, 203 

Montecascioli, 97 

Montecassino, 5 n., 32, 96 

— chronicle of, 35 
Monte Castello, 206 
Montecatini, battle of, 268 
Monte Circello, 222 
Monte dell' Argentiera, 144 

— del Corbo, 221 

— di Croce, castle of, 123 
Montefiascone, 91 n. 
Montegrossoli, fortress, 202 n. 
Montegufoni, 101 
Monteguidi, 93 
Montemagno, fortress, 92 
Monteorecio, 234 

Monte Pisano, 205 n. 
Montepulciano, 222 
Monte Rasu, 144 
Montereggioni, 231 
Monte Tignoso, 130 
Montevarchi, 127 
Montferrat, marquis of, 209 
Monti of Siena, 244 n. 
Montpellier, 115, 172 

— count of, 58, 65 
Montramito, 192, 193, 203 
Montuolo, 202 

Monza, 120 



Moors, the, 217 n. 
Morava, river, 57 n. 
Moriconi, Pietro, archbishop, 59 
Morocco, 115, 146 

— emir of, 82 
Morris, William, 118 n. 
Mortennano, church of S. Agnese, 

104 
Moslems (Mussulmans), 5 n., 15, 17, 

31,37,47, 58,67 
Motrone, 90, 178, 179, 189, 190 
Mugello, the, 61, 102 
Muratori, L., 84, 86, 87, 162 
Musaito, king, 150 
Musaitus, see Mogahid 
Mussulmans, see Moslems 

Naples and the Neapolitans, 84 ff., 
130, 136, 180, 212, 221 ff., 268 

— bay of, 84, 87 

— duke of, 18 
Narbonne, 115, 172 

— viscount of, 58, 65 
Narses, 3 

Nasello, Oberto, see Cancelliere 

Nebbio, bishop of, 79 

Nervi, 72 

Nicaea, siege of, 47 

Nice, 6 

Nicetas, 218 n. 

Nicolete, 172 n. 

Nimes, 65 

Noli, 157 

Normandy, 192 

Normanno, Stefano, 75 

Normans, the, 15, 27, 28, 34, 35, 
83 fL, 88, 100, 102, 107, 120, 
121, 125, 129, 130, 137, 141, 
181, 184, 223, 224, 226 

Numidia, 17 

Nuvola, 167, 168 

Oberto di Massa, 147 

— d' Olevano, 225, 264 
Ogerio, 230, 231 
Oliveri, 28 n. 

Oliveto, 254 
Omayyads, 20 
Ombrone, river, 94 n. 
Oporto, 218 n. 
Ordine del Mare, 265 
Oreto, river, 28, 29 
Orient, the, 34 
Oristano, 152 ff., 175 
Orlandi, family of, 265 

— Ildebrando, 64 

— Lamberto, 27 



INDEX 



287 



Ortricoli, 213 
Orvieto, 93, 233 
Orzocorre of Arborea, 144 
Ostia, battle of, 5 
Ostrogothic kingdom, 17 
Ostrogoths, 3 
Othello, 32 
Otho I, emperor, 8 

— IV, emperor, 232 
Otranto, straits of, 49 
Otterburn, battle of, 35 

Otto of Brescia, cardinal, 163 n. 

— of Frisingen, 105 
Ozari, river, 247 

Palermo, 5 n., 27 ff., 56, 130, 136, 
221, 226 

— Cassaro or Citta Vecchia, 28 

— la Cala, 28 

— the Khalesa, 28, 29 

— Quartiere degli Schiavoni, 29 

— Via Vittorio Emanuele, 28 
Palestine, 47, 51 ff., 123, 217, 218 
Pallium, the, 79 

Palmaria, island, 170, 173 
Pandolfo, canon of Lucca, 206 
Pane, Ogerio, 232 n. 
Panteleon, merchant, 36 n. 
Pantellaria, island of, 27, 37 
Papal legate, 49 

— treasury, 74 
Pappiana, 69 
Paris, 163 n. 

Parlamentum (Arrengo), 10, 145, 240, 

241, 243 
Parlascio, da, 259 
Parma, 148 
Paschal II, pope, 49 n., 60, 63, 69, 96 

— Ill, antipope, 161, 162, 164, 
165, 184, 209 

Paul, S., 162 

Pavia, 87, 136, 149, 180, 205, 207 

— council of, 126, 127 

— treaty of, 137, 207, 266 
Peccioli, 131, 132, 239 n. 
Pellari, the, 60 
Pellicciai, the, 245, 246 
Pelops, 1, 3 

Perugians, 212 n., 268 
Pesa, river, 101 n. 
Pescatore, Enrico, 267 n. 
Peter, deacon, 35 

— S., 45, 135 
Petrognano, 229 

Philip of Cologne, 188 n., 199 

— of Suabia, 214 
Pianosa, 139, 188, 203 



Piedmont, 6 

Pier di Leone, 75 

Pietrasanta, 178 

Pietro, bishop of Porto, 75 

— di Torres, 147 

Pieve a Pitti, see Castrum Pavae 
Piombino, 78, 128, 166, 242 
Pisa, anziani of, 1 1 1 

— archbishops of, 12, 13, 51, 64, 
70, 74 ff., 78 ff., 99, 115, 129, 
145, t6o, 165 ff., 186, 235, 249, 
250, 258, 262 

— Baptistery, 237, 244 

— Borgo S. Michele, 156 

— Campanile or Leaning Tower, 
205, 237, 244 

— Cathedral, 24 n., 29, 55, 56, 59, 
115, 168, 169, 209, 217, 237, 244 

— churches of, see Churches 

— communes of, 30, 235 ff. 

— consuls of, 103, 235, 237, 239 ff. 

— council of, 100, 101, 238, 239 

— general council of 1134, 82 

— marquises of, 249 

— Opera del Duomo, 56, 263 
di S. Maria, 144 

— Porta Legatia, 61 
a Mare, 61 n., 246 

— treasury of the Fabbrica del 
Duomo, 56 n., 69 

— Via S. Antonio, 260 
S. Maria, 260 

Pisan colonies, government of, m, 
112 

— colonists and merchants, 128, 
130 

— corsairs, 32, 53, 267 

Pistoia and the Pistoiesi, 61, 94, 102, 
105, 106, 124, 158 n., 193, 200 ff., 
210 ff., 229, 232, 261, 268 

Pizzamiglio, consul, 154 

Po, river, 117, 248 

Poggibonsi (Marturi), 91 n., 104, 
105, 123, 207, 212 n., 229, 231, 
.233, 234 

Poitou, count of, 217 

Pola in Istria, 19 n. 

Polybius, 28 

Ponsio, viscount of Basso, 147 

Ponte, 254 

Pontedera, 201, 203, 253, 254 

Ponte Flesso, 202 

— S. Pietro, 202 

— Vecchio, 194 n. 
Pontida, congress of, 184 
Pontormo, 97 
Pontremoli, 91 n. 



288 



INDEX 



Popes — 

Alexander III, 125, 126, 128, 129, 
135, 137, 146, 162, 164, 165, 
177, 184, 186, 188, 210, 212 

— IV, 7 n. 

Anacletus [antipope], 78, 82, 83, 

100 
Anastasius IV, 121 
Benedict VIII, 21 
Calixtus II, 74, 75, 78, 97, 98, 100 

— Ill [antipope], 210 
Celestine III, 222 
Clement III, 217, 222 
Eugenius III, 107, 117, 123 n., 

145, 146 
Gelasius II, 70 ff., 74, 79, 143 
Gregory the Great, 3, 23 n. 

— VII, 8, 24 

— VIII, 217 

— VIII [antipope], 96 ff. 
Hadrian IV, 121, 122, 124, 125, 

127 
Honorius II, 78, 79, 100 
Innocent II, 57, 78 ff., 88, 100 
Lucius III, 210 
Paschal II, 49 n., 60, 63, 69, 96 

— Ill [antipope], 161, 162, 164, 
165, 184, 209 

Sylvester II, 16 
Urban II, 45, 46 
Victor III, 31, 35 n. 

— IV [antipope], 125, 126, 128, 
160, 161 

Populonia, 14, 80, 139 
Porcari, the, 254 
Porco, Guglielmo, 267 n. 
Porphyrogenitus, John, 54 
Port' Ercole, 130 
Porto Bonifacio, 225 

— Pisano, 2, 92, 138, 175, 197. 
200 

— S. Lucia, 203 

— S. Maurizio, 157, 176 

— Torres, 63 

— Venere, 30, 61, 72, 74, 93, 129, 
130, 136, 139 ff., 170, 173, 174 n., 
176, 187, 188, 198, 221 

Portofino, 30, 173 

Potesta, 158, 214, 220, 262 ff. 

Praeses Tusciae, 213 

Prato and the Pratesi, 94, 95, 105, 

106, 124, 158 n., 220, 228, 232, 

268 
Procida, 224 
Provence and the Provencals, 6, 27, 

65, 68, 115, J 22, 129, 136, 146, 

166, 171 ff., 176, 186, 188, 204 



Provisores, 250 
Punic war, second, 4 
Punto Falcone, 63 
Puthumaiore, 144 

Querceto, 130 
Querciagrossa, 231 
Quosa, 187, 254 

Rabodo, 96 

Radicofani, 91 n. 

Radicondoli, 93 

Rainald, archbishop of Cologne, 132, 

133, 140, 158 ff., 177, 182 ff., 

188 n., 210 
Rainulf of Alife, 83, 85, 87 
Ramleh, council of, 112 
Ranieri, bishop of Siena, 165 
Ranuccino da S. Cassiano and Barile, 

258 
Rapallo, 30, 198 
Ravello, 85, 87 
Ravenna, 94 
Raymond, count, 115 

— of Barcelona, 147 

— of S. Gilles, 49, 65 

— of Toulouse, 172 
Raynald of Antioch, 108 
Recalcato, consul, 175 
Reggio, battle of, 15 n., 16, 21 
Regia, see Via Regia 
Regno, Comes, 264, 265 
Rempotto, 99 

Rennes, 192 

Rhineland, the lower, 223 

Rhodes, 51 

— battle of, 55 

Rhone, river, 115, 171, 172, 183 
Richard of Acerra, 222 

— of Alife, 85 

— (Coeur de Lion), count of Poi- 
tou, 217 ff., 223 

Ricoverino, 257 
Ricucchi, Cucco, 48 
Rio, the torrent, 104 n. 
Ripafratta, the, 253 ff., 258 n. 

— castle of, 66, 95 
Ripa Grande, 185 n. 

— Romea, 185 n. 
Riviera, the, 6 

Riviere, the two, 71, 73 n., 156, 

!57n. 
Robert of Capua, 83 ff., 117 

— of S. Gilles, 49 
Rodvano, consul, 183 
Roger of Andria, count, 209 

— of Ariano, 87 






INDEX 



289 



Roger (cont.) 

— of Sicily, 83 fL, 106, 117, 121, 
136,22411. 

Romagna and the Romagnuols, 94, 
98, 99, 105, 160, 183, 204, 214, 
268 

Roman Campagna, 164 
I — eagles, 60 n. 

— law, 250 

— roads, 179 
Romania, 144 

Rome and the Romans, 4, 5 n., 15 n., 
17, 23 n., 60, 61, 74, 80, 82, 83, 
91, 96, 125, 128, 165, 183 fL, 
210, 222, 233 

— church of, 23 n. 

— colosseum, 184 

— coronation of Frederick at, 120 

— emperor of, 26 

— prefect of, 75, 198 

— S. Peter's, 184 

— the Lateran, 45, 165 

— Porta Caste] lo, 91 n. 
Romoald, 88 

Roncaglia, 100, 101, 117, 119, 120, 

228 
Roncioni, 30, 52, 59, 63, 107, 113 
Rosaio, victory of, 212 n. 
Roselle, 14 
Rosetta, 114 
Ross, Mrs Janet, Story of Pisa, 26 n., 

48 n. 
Rotharis, 4 
Roussillon, 65 

Rudolf the Bald, chronicle of, 27 
RufTo, Ottone, consul, 137, 138, 

266 n. 
Ruggero of Florence, archdeacon, 

209 

— (Rogerio) degli Upezzinghi, 
archbishop of Pisa and bishop of 
Volterra, 77, 99, 144, 244 

Ruggiero, 13, 168 
Russia, 245 

Rustico di Filippo, 256 
Rutilius, 2 

Sacred Chrism, the, 160 

Sadingfeldt, abbey of, 104 n. 

S. Agapitus, day of, 28 

S. Andrea, pieve of, 97 

S. Bernard of Clairvaux, 82, 87, 107, 

145 
S. Bonifacio, strait of, 63, 143 
S. Cassiano, family of, 60, 254, 255, 

259 
S. Denis, 107 



S. Genesio, 102, 103, 127, 158, 162 

— diet of, 161, 162, 178, 262 
S. Gilles, 115, 171 fL, 205 

S. Gimignano, 232 
S. Giovanni of Florence, 215 
S. Giusta, bishop of, 148, 153 
S. Gorgonio, abbot of, 259 
S. ]ohn,fondaco of, 224 
S. Maria de Latina, abbot of, 115 n. 
S. Mary, fair of, 247 
S. Miniato, 200, 202, 205, 209, 211, 
228, 232, 263 

— al Tedesco, 96, 158, 233, 252 
S. Paul, 162 

S. Peter, 135 

— throne of, 96, 97 

— banner of, 217 

S. Pietro d' Atto, bishop of, 79 
S. Quirico, 91 n. 

— d' Orcia, 158 n., 222 
S. Remo, 157 

S. Reparata, 63 

S. Rossore, canons of, 246 

S. Sisto, day and festival of, 38, 63, 73 

S. Teresa, 63 

S. Vito, abbot of, 260 

Salerno, 5, 84, 87, 88, 130, 136, 221 

— prince of, 18 
Salona, diocese of, 79 
Salonika, 57, 245 

Saltaro, son of Costantino of Torres, 

6 3. . 
Samminiatesi, the, 200, 228 

San Feliu de Guixols, 64 

Sancho VI of Navarre, 181 

Santini, P., professor, 97 

Sanzanome, 94, 99, 105 

Saracen corsairs, 17, 21, 177, 266 

Saracens, 5, 6, 14 fL, 22, 23, 26, 27, 

29, 35 n., 38 fL, 42, 43, 45, 58, 

64, 67, 68, 78, 79, 81, 134, 147 
Sardinia and the Sardinians, 2, 4, 9, 

15 n., 17 fL, 30, 32, 58, 61 n., 
63 fL, 70, 72, 79, 107,115,121 n., 
134, 135, 138, 142 fL, 148 fL, 
153 fL, 164, 170, 174, 175, 180, 
181, 188, 197, 198, 205, 206, 216, 
232, 237, 245, 246, 254, 267 

— primacy and legation of, 80, 
145, 152 

Sardo, 107 
Sarzana, 91 n., 160 
Savona, 156, 188, 268 
Saxony, duke of, 100 
Scala, 85, 87 
Scandinavia, 245 
Scarlino, 130 



290 



INDEX 



Scheiern, house of, 97 
Scorno, 254 

— Gherardo da, 251 
Scotland, 23 n. 

Scriba, Ottobono, 206, 224, 226 

Scudocollo di Aldobrandino, 264 

Semifonte, 229, 230, 233 

Senatores, 242 

Seneschal, the, 224, 226 

Seraglio, the point of the, 54 

Serbia, 231 

Serbian railway, 57 n. 

Serchio, river, 66, 90, 92, 95, 189, 

192, 202, 246 
Sergius of Naples, 84, 86 
Sestri Levante, 198 
Settimo, 213, 252 
Seville, 20 
Sfax, 32, 115 
Sibilia (Zawila), 39, 115 
Sibilla, widow of Tancred of Sicily, 

226 
Sicilian expedition, 136, 142, 148, 

160, 161, 199, 222, 267 
Sicilies, subjugation of the Two, 214 
Sicily, s, 15, 18, 34, 37, 58, 83, 87, 

122, 124, 130, 136, 137, 139, 171, 

183, 185, 186, 212, 220 ff., 226, 

227, 232 

— king of, 83, 196, 209 

— Norman conquest of, 27, 29 

— queen regent of, 181 
Sidon, 47, 53, 266 

Siena and the Sienese, 61, 77 n., 
91 n., 93, 94, 99, 104 ff., 123 ff., 
127, 158 n., 193, 197, 201, 202, 
204, 205, 207, 210, 212 n., 213, 
217, 222, 228 ff., 233, 234, 263, 
268 

— bishops of, 89, 104 

— the campo of, 198 

— the diet of, 201 

— the Monti of, 244 n. 

— Our Lady of, 215 
Sienese Maremma, 93 

Simeon, count, son of Roger of 

Sicily, 136 
Sismondi, 5, 26 n., 55, 265 
Slavs, 19, 20 

Societas Vermigliorum, 216 
Soldanieri, Gianni de', 261 
Sorrento, 87 
Spain, 2, 15, 17, 20, 22, 67, 68, 82, 

146, 171, 209 

— Saracens of, 64 
Spanish armada, 267 n. 
Spanu, comita de, 144 



Spinola, Oberto, 180, 182 

Spires, bishop of, 233 

Spoleto, duchy of, 117 

Staggia, 91 n. 

Strabo, 1 

Suabia, duke of, 99, 117 

Sutri, 91 n., 98 

Sylvester II, pope, 16 

Syracuse, 5 n., 35 n., 136 

Syria, 53, 108 ff., 112 ff., 116, 139, 

216, 219 
Syrian waters, 49, 52, 57, 219 

Tamnis, 114 
Tanaro, river, 195 
Tancred of Antioch, 53 

— of Lecce [and Sicily], 220 ff., 
226 

Taranto, 5 n., 45 

Tedesco, at, 228 

Tedice di Donoratico, 147 

Tedicio di Castagneto, 220, 264 

Telese, Alessandro di, 85 

Temim (Temino), 27, 33 ff., 38, 40, 

42 ff. 
Teperto di Duodo, 184, 204 
Terracina, 128, 177 
Teutonici, 96 

Teutonicus of Volterra, 133 
Thames, river, 56 
Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, 1, 4 
Tiber, river, 83, 165, 184 
Tirso, river, 17 
Tolomeo of Lucca, 193 
Torbeno of Arborea, 144 

— of Cagliari, 63 
Tornano, 231 

Torre Benni (Bastia), 130 

— della Fame, 268 

Torres (Logudoro), 9, 143, 144, 154, 
155, 174, 206 

— judge and judgeship of, 9, 1436°. , 
153, 216 

— port of, 144 
Torritano, the Giudicato, 63 
Tortona, 120 

Tortosa, 20, 44, 52, 106 ff., 108 n., 

146 
Totila, 4, 17 
Traina, 28 
Trani, 45 
Trapani, 221 

Trapilicini, corsair, 170, 171 
Travalda, 253 
Trecento, the, 93, 266 
Treguani, the, 167 
Treguano Buonaggiunta, 168 



INDEX 



291 



Tripalle, 206, 254 
Tripoli, 47, 114, 115 

— siege of, 53 
Trojan war, 1 
Tronci, 30, 47, 78 
Troy, siege of, 16 
Turin, 142 

Tuscan league, 23 1 , 234 

Tuscany and the Tuscans, 5, 7, 13, 
14, 58, 90, 92, 93, 95 ff., 100, 102, 
103, 105, 120, 124, 127, 132. 158, 
160 ff., 179, 189, 193, 196, 197, 
201, 204, 207 ff., 216, 220 ff., 
226, 228 ff., 234, 245, 247, 268 

— the margraves of, 94 

— marquises and the marquisate 
of, 24, 99 ff., 117, 214, 235 

Tusciae Provinciae caput, 7, 61, 217 
Tyre, 47, 108, m ff., 115, 216 ff. 
Tyrrhenian sea, 2 ff., 14, 15, 37, 71, 
122, 146, 222, 234 

Ubaldi, filii, 193, 203 

Ubaldo, archbishop, 167, 217, 219 

Uberti, the, 200, 209 

Ugo, count, 9, 253 

— bishop of S. Giusta, 148 

— da Parlascio, 258 
Ugolino, 168, 261 

Ugone di Pagano Ebriaci, 144 
Uguccione della Faggiuola, 268 
Ulric of Altems, 103, 105 
Ultramontane nations, the, 91 
Umbria, 178 

United States of America, 207 
Upezzinghi, family of the, 77, 203, 

253, 254 
Urban II, pope, 45, 46 
Utica, 5 

Vada, 30, 78, 176 

Val d' Arno, 97 ; Valdarno, 265 

— d' Elsa, 94, 99, 104, 200, 229 

— Demone, 28 n. 

— d' Era, 105, 201, 230; Valdera, 
the, 131, 132, 253, 265 

— di Bisenzio, 94 

— di Greve, 94, 101 

— di Mazara, 28 n. 

— di Merse, 94 n. 

— di Noto, 28 n., 136 

— di Pesa, 94, 95, 97 

— di Serchio, 95 ; Valdiserchio, 
265 

— d' Ombrone, 205 n. 

— d' Orcia, 94 n. 
Valencia, 44 



Vallechia, 92, 192 

Vandals, the, 17 

Varada, river, 57 n. 

Vecchiano, 254, 259 

Veltrus de Corvara, 254 n. 

Vendetta, 255, 256, 261 

Venice and the Venetians, 5 n., 15, 
45, 47, 5i, 52, 55, 85, 86, 121, 
129, 136, 137, 204, 209, 216, 218, 
219, 222, 223, 227 

— peace of, 212 
Ventimiglia, 72, 157 
Ventrignano, 202, 252 
Veronensis (Vernensis), Laurentius, 

59. 
Versilia (Versiglia), 93, 188, 191, 192, 

2H, 253 
Vezzano, 173 
Via Emilia, 183 

— Francigena, 90 ff., 186, 189 ff., 
200, 202 

— Regia, 190 n., 192 
Viareggio, tower of, 192, 203, 206 

— 9i, 177, 187, 189, 192, 197 
Vibald, abbot, 106 

Vicecomes (Visconti q.v.), Albertus, 
264 

— Bulgarinus, 264 

— Petrus, 10 

— Ugo, 11, 42, 258 
Vicecomes (Vicedominus) , 166, 167 
Vico, 254 

Vicopisano, 203 

Victor III, pope, 31, 35 n. 

— IV, antipope, 125, 126, 128, 
160, 161 

Vigil of S. John, 132 

— of the Assumption, 124, 237 
Vignale, castello of, 99 

Villa di Abbazia, 167 

— Triturrita, 2 
Villafranca, 6, 91 n. 

Villani, Giovanni, 66, 101, 233 

Villano, archbishop, 126, 128, 129, 
131, 160, 161, 163 ff., 168, 169, 
186, 188, 246 

Villari, P., professor, 10 

Villehardouin, La Conquite de Con- 
stantinople, 56 

Virginio, river, 101 

Visconti, the, 10 ff., 60, 144, 145, 
167, 186, 236, 240, 252, 254, 258, 
263, 265, 269; see also Vice- 
comes 

Viterbo, 91 n., 164, 213 

Vitry, Jacques de, 112 n. 

Volo, gulf of, 57, 216 n. 



292 



INDEX 



Volpe, G., professor, 168 n., 230, 

258 
Volteranni (Volterrani), the, 48, 61, 

132, 268 
Volterra, 14, 128, 132, 158 n., 221, 

232, 263 

— bishops of, 77, 99, 189, 193, 
227, 228, 230, 252 

— the Teutonicus of, 133 
Volterrano, 94 

Volto Santo, 91 
Voltri, 72 

Walandi, Albertus, 264 
Wilhelm von Aachen, 158 n. 
William of Loritello, 87 

— of Montferrat, 182 

— of Montpellier, 65 



William (cont.) 

— I of Sicily, 121, 122, 124, 129, 
130, 137 

— II of Sicily, 184, 186, 195, 212, 
219 

— of Tyre, 50, 218 n. 
Wordsworth, 256 
Worms, concordat of, 98 

— diet of, 199 

Wurzburg, diet of, 117, 164, 165 

Ximines, Roderigo, 44 

York, 56 

Zara, the, 216 

Zawila (Sibilia), 39, 115 

Zirites, dynasty of the, 26, 31 



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